Lecture+notes

__Jonathon__ Quotes I enjoyed: "Like a bright thread of awe.", "Two spoons in bed.", "Never fails to fill the saucer of my heart with milky admiration." 2. Common Themes: Humour, common life, suburban/ middle class life, inanimate objects, small details we fail to notice. 3. As he first began reading I got an initial impression that his voice was rather mundane, boring and monotone as if he didn't really care about his work. Then he I realized that it actually aided in the delivery of his poetry - I mean how else would you deliver it because the poems are not extremely passionate or enthusiastic. I really came to like his poetry though. I found his poems easy to understand and relate to as they describe common life in a humorous way. He had some interesting ideas behind his narrative which were not over cluttered with too much imagery. He used many refrences to literature and other poets at the begining which I didn't understand but the audience did. Speaking of the audience they seemed to be really receptive to respond well to his performance (although they were all probably fans anyways). 4. One thing that I realized while watching the lecture was how much he reminded me of another writer - an essayist named David Sedaris who writes with a similar dry style of humor about his life which is very relatable. David Sedaris often reads his essays and his delivery is almost exactly the same as Billy Collins. I would highly reccomen David Sedaris to anyone who enjoyed this poetry.
 * 1) Poems I enjoyed: the 'suddenly' poem, "Hotel Rex", "The Revenent"

__Luke:__ Ok, well, at first, I was skeptical. Poetry was not an interesting topic for me, and it was slightly boring. i've heard a little bit about Billy Collins, and his poetry. The poetry, when i looked over it, during the lecture, made an impact. It had a certain flair to it. Flair may not be the right word for it, but that word seemed to fit best at the time. However, the impact of the poetry was dulled slightly by the seemingly robotic monotone of Mr. Collin's voice. I felt as though he was dimming the poetry slightly while reading it.

__Ishan:__ 1. Key Poems/Lines Poems- Oh My God, Ballistics, Litany, Golden Age ‘If only I were not her god’-Dharma, ‘Pheasant Ridge where there are no pheasant to be seen and last time I looked, no ridge’- Golden Years 2. Common Themes Animals, Inanimate Objects, Overlooked everyday things 3. Initial Response to Poetry My initial thoughts on hearing Billy Collin’s poetry was how much more interesting it was then I would have thought. While his presentation was lacking and he didn’t put much emotion or particular care into his reading, it never was supposed to be about him or is appearance but about the poems. The poems themselves were quite interesting and the contents quite appealing to a person such as me. He seemed to focus mainly on unimportant and unnoticed parts of our lives, things we never think of ourselves but which made it so much more interesting to hear about from someone else. He seemed to be a humorous person, but could be serious at times and since his topics were that of an average man, most people could find some connection to the poems. 4. I found that the actual areas that he got his inspiration from where quite interesting to examine. His poems seem to be on a whole manner of things with no particular focus and connection to one another. And the poems he writes based on these things always come from a new trail that hasn’t been strolled before, and this is why his poems are so interesting. Instead of writing about the simple classic aspects of things, he takes a new perspective, breathing new life into old and thought degenerate topics.

· “A Portrait of a Reader with a Bowl of Cereal”- //“…me in a sweatshirt or robe, you invisible.”// · “Ballistics”- //“…and the special poet’s hat he likes to wear.”// I felt that this poem was an excellent example of Billy Collins poetry. Its topic is obscure, but perhaps one that everyone has considered at one point or another. Collins writes using such unique descriptors that it is very easy for everyone to empathize and understand his sarcastic and cynical but humours commentary. · “Adage”- //“You look at me… and tell me that love is an ill wind that has no turning road, that blows no good. No, I’m here to remind you… That love is the early bird that is better late than never.”// I enjoyed these lines in particular as it goes against the common subject of the depressing aspects of love and describes it as something wonderful. Love as a wonderful thing is a topic of countless poems, songs, etc., but Billy Collins manages to revisit it in a unique, fresh and beautiful way so that it is not cliché. · [Unknown]- //“… I used to carry in the pocket of my uniform, up and down the treacherous halls of highschool.”// · “Litany”- //“There is just no way you are the pine scented air”// and //“You are still the bread and the knife”// · “Lanyard” I really enjoyed this poem as it very easily speaks to the reader, especially one of American descent as this is such a cultural reference. Because he is able to make such a descriptive and truthful commentary on such a simple thing, the poem is very humorous. · “Darma”- //“If only I were not her God.”// · “The Revenant”- //“When I watched you towelling yourself dry, I wanted to leap and unman you with a snap.”// · “The Country”- //“…the creature for one bright, shining moment suddenly thrust ahead of his time –now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid illuminating some ancient night.”// · [Unknown]- //“…hungry one-eyed camera eager to devour the world on monument at a time.”// · “Nightclub”- //“It feels like smoke curling up from a cigarette someone left burning on a baby grand piano around three o’clock in the morning”//, //“…while out theree in the darkness some of the beautiful fools have gathered… slipping by degrees into a rhythmic dream”//, //“Yes, there is all this foolish beauty, borne beyond midnight, that has no desire to go home”//, //“…that hangs from his neck like a golden fish”// and //“We are all so foolish… so damn foolish we have become beautiful without even knowing it.”// I noticed, while listening to Billy Collins’ poetry, that no two poems of his are alike or speak directly of similar topics. Billy Collins’ poems tend to be sarcastic commentaries on simple aspects of common life, and therefore it is very difficult to find common themes without broadening the term or digging deeper into the poem. As Billy Collins mentioned before commencing the lecture, many of his poems can link back to time, and how we are affected as time goes on. Often, Billy Collins poetry features incredible imagery and metaphors using inanimate objects (the forks, spoons and knives in “Divorce”, for example). In the poem “Oh My God”, he uses imagery to sarcastically glorify a passing aspect of everyday life in order to make a point. Immediately, I took a liking to Billy Collins’ poetry. Many of his references and much of his humour is very typically American, so I understood it well and could very easily relate to all he spoke about. His imagery was beautiful, unique and creative and made the poems interesting to hear and without any clichés. His sarcastic commentaries on everyday aspects of life were surprisingly true and very hilarious, I thought, emphasized by his very monotone and dry voice which was suitable for this kind of humour. With poems that were more obviously serious and less humorous, however, I found his tone slightly boring and inappropriate and was detached from the subject matter. I found that much of his poetry is quite narrative and almost seems to tell a short story, or a chapter of a longer one. I think it would be very interesting to investigate how happenings in his life affected what he wrote about in his poetry.
 * __Morgan’s responses to the Billy Collins poetry lecture__ **
 * Favourite Poems and Lines **
 * Common Themes Running through Poems **
 * Initial Response to Billy Collins’ Poetry **
 * Areas of Particular Interest **

__**Victoria’s response to the Billy Collins Lecture**__ 1. **Key phrases I enjoyed:** - “Trading the two birds who might be hiding in that bush for the bird in your hand.” <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “Love is the early bird who is better late than never.” <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “When will the day come when we have compared everything in the world with everything else.” [or something along those lines] <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “We are all so beautiful, so damn beautiful we have all become foolish” <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “Foolish beauty born beyond midnight” <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Oh My God <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Litany <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Lanyard 2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Common Themes running throughout poems** I found one theme that was extremely prominent from looking at all of his poems. All of them seemed to be written about the common, suburban man’s everyday life. His poems were most of the time about things in life that are usually taken for granted, unnoticeable and unimportant things. He does not talk about the typical subjects of poetry; love, hate, death and life etc, but topics more relevant to the common man. 3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Initial response to his poetry** At first I truly disliked the lecture, not so much because of his poetry but more because of his tone when he was reading his poems. He struck me as completely unenthusiastic and impassionate about his own poetry, which made me enjoy it less as well. After a few poems however, I was convinced that he used this tone for a purpose; to illustrate the skeptical and sarcastic man who was supposed to be the person in the poem observing the world from a superior perspective. Through this character he mocked everything and everyone in his poems. On another note, an aspect of his poetry that stuck with me was that the language and tone of a poem would generally be really simple and easily understood but at some points Collins would suddenly include a phrase filled with depth and feeling that it caught u off-guard.
 * Key poems I enjoyed:**

4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Area of particular interest** An area of his poetry that particularly interested me was how he has made his poems so very simple and easy to relate to but there are still those few sentences that have multiple meanings and make you wonder if there is an underlying meaning behind the poem after all.

At first when viewing Billy Collins lecture I did not find it very appealing, due to factors such as the tone of his voice, which was initially quite dull. However as his speech/ lecture progressed I found that his voiced added sarcasm to his poems. Because of this I believe that his poems appealed to everyone i.e. both American and British audiences. I also found that in general he added honesty to his poems; this both added to the hyperbole and irony in his poems e.g. the reverent. I particularly enjoyed the poems litany, pheasant ridge and land yard. I found that these poems all had two sides to them, they were humorous and most importantly they had very descriptive imagery. I also enjoyed the way he started his lecture with “it’s not about history it’s about time”, I believe that these words are very powerful, everyone may perceive this sentence in a different way, it draws the audience’s attention and it’s a pensive quote.
 * Stacey's Notes**

<span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT','serif'; font-size: 22pt;">Billy Collins Poetry - Sophie

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> “The Golden Years” <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> All I do these drawn-out days <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> where there are no pheasants to be seen <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and last time I looked, no ridge. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> I could drive over to Quail Falls <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and spend the day there playing bridge, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> would only remind me of Pheasant Ridge. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> I know a widow at Fox Run <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> One of them smokes, and neither can run, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> so I’ll stick to the pledge I made to Midge. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> - I loved this playful sonnet, which pokes fun at the names of housing developments. I through it was clever and humorous how he titled the sonnet after a famous Shakespearian sonnet (…though the actual content of the sonnets have nothing to do with each other). I through he was trying to contrast the serious nature of a traditional sonnet, with this sonnet, which has little underlying meaning. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> Excerpt from “The Lanyard” <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> “…She gave me life and milk from her breasts, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and I gave her a lanyard. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> She nursed me in many a sick room, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> lifted spoons of medicine to my lips, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> laid cold face-cloths on my forehead, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and then led me out into the airy light <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and taught me to walk and swim, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> Here are thousands of meals, she said, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> and here is clothing and a good education. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> And here is your lanyard, I replied, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> which I made with a little help from a counsellor…” <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">- I found this poem quite entertaining, mainly because it was so relatable. Having grown up in the states, I think almost all American suburban kids have gone to camp and made a lanyard for their mothers. This poem sheds light on the more humorous side to this act of giving. Its contrasts the gift of a lanyard, with the gift of a life, which in itself is a quite humorous contrast since one gift is so much more significant and important than the other. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Common themes **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; msotabcount: 1;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">The theme which was strongest throughout his poems was the reoccurring element of “Americana”. Nearly all of the poems had to do with American culture or American traditions in some shape or form. I thought this made his work very subjective depending on the cultural background of his audience. I think this was why a lot of non American kids in our class found the poems humourless (and subsequently laaaaame). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> Personally, I have really enjoyed the majority of poems I have read from him thus far and found them extremely clever and funny (perhaps it was because I’m American, and could relate to the themes and examples he was using). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> I felt that his poems were also very accessible. They have a high level of diction and complex structures usually associated with more snooty literature, yet he somehow manages to make his sarcastic literature seem unpretentious. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> (I.e. ideas for your IOP) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> - Perhaps the running theme of Americana in Billy Collins poetry?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Favourite poems/lines from poems: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Initial response to his poetry: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Area of particular interest: **