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Oct 20, 2010

D.E. rated it:

I am a book addict. I own thousands of them. They fill most rooms of my house, many closets, my garage. They are stacked high by my bedside, on the hamper in the upstairs bathroom, in the backseat of my car. I take a book with me most places I go. I buy books all the time but I have gotten a little less self-indulgent in my buying habits; I almost never buy hardback and I never ever buy full-price. Probably the next lesson I should learn in my book buying habits is never buy while partially or f More...

198 comments like (42 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2007

Trishv rated it:

Billy Collins is the perfect poet for people who don't really care for poetry. He writes little stories in free verse that are accessible and often very funny. This is a collection of, as the title says, new and old poems. Some of my favorites are: Marginalia where the poet ponders the kinship he feels with people who write in the margin of books; Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House where the poet struggles with his ire at the neighbor's barking dog, and Passengers, his observ More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2008

Jean rated it:

I gave this book three separate sittings and though I did enjoy reading it, I could not shake the feeling that Collins is a bit too straightforward. I understand his widespread appeal - he makes poetry manageable, accessible, easy - but I think he does so at some expense. Critics quoted in the front of the book described his "irresistable charm" - but I think that a great deal of that charm is not so much the sublimeness of his poems, but the fact that nearly every person on earth - More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2009

Stacy added it

the lanyard

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room
bouncing from typewriter to piano
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the "L" section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word, Lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past.
A past where I sat at a workbench
at a camp by a deep Adirondack More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 21, 2007

Anne rated it:

I just really enjoy Billy Collins'dry wit and way with words. But here is my favorite Billy Collins poem (not, alas, included in this book, but it will give you a nice taste of his work).

the lanyard

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room
bouncing from typewriter to piano
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the "L" section of the dictionary
where my eyes fe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Melody rated it:

I have to say that I glaze over at most poetry. I always feel that I need to "tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it". But perhaps this book helped me "walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch". Although I'll still do that with the hose for beating behind my back.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2010

Leo rated it:

I am no poetry expert. Sadly, I have watched more movies with fart scenes than I have read poetry books. I am trying to reverse this trend but Dumb and Dumber has aged surprisingly well. Billy Collins, American poet laureate and seemingly, very nice guy, is truly a gift to his nation. His writing style breathes sweetness and whimsy to the most mundane of life's daily events. As I write this, I am listening to Tom Waits' Waltzing Matilda. Like singer songwriter Waits, Collins consistently s More...

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Jun 19, 2010

Jacob rated it:

I am normally not one to review poetry. I read it and I learn from it, both the good and the ugly. After reading this book, I was compelled to not only read, but explain what made it so absolutely great in my eyes.

I have read a range of poets and I have grown tired at the "same ol', same ol'" approach. Granted, I am new to the world of poetry only having started writing and reading for only a couple years, but I have already seen modern poetry for what it is. In fact, I ca More...

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Jun 18, 2010

T. rated it:

I've had countless debates with friends regarding the awesomeness, yuck factor and legitimacy of Billy Collins as a poet. And then countless meetings, cigarettes and conversations will still be spent discussing his works. Accessibility can both be lovely and degrading depending on where you stand.

Then, there are the feelings we have for him and his poems as a reader, and our reactions and opinions as people who write poetry, too. It's one big, hot mess. To borrow his words from Plig More...

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Dec 05, 2009

Brendan rated it:

My philosophically minded friends and I have a debate about Billy Collins' poetry. They insist that the attempt to chronicle the everyday in a meaningful way can be done in a deeper, more profound manner. They find Collins lacking in this way. This is probably true, but not Collins' main point, I think.
Still, I think, after rereading this book, that Collins becomes more profound with time. I am still unsure if this is my projection into the poem because I *want* these poems to be more More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Roger rated it:

Collins’ poetry exalts the casual, passing events of everyday life into lucid moments worth savoring. He has a gifted knack for descriptive elegance in regards to glorifying simple concrete objects, such as oranges, trees, rooms, yards, and dogs, to identify a few. He doesn’t try to be fancy, instead choosing to find great need in pointing out how small items, through his use of metaphor, define the largeness of the world. Objects become the center of depicting our lives as extraordinary. The or More...

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Mar 15, 2010

Wil rated it:

mmmm. I checked out three in a row, or AnnaMay checked them out for me; and I loved them. For anyone who says they don't enjoy poetry, or that it is too often over their heads, or...whatever; Collins is a wonderful place to begin and end. There are so many wonderful poets, I have so many favorite poems, but there's just something about a poem titled: Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House, that makes me laugh. This is an interesting title. It seems long too. But, as my eyes gra More...

1 comment like

Aug 05, 2011

Hansen rated it:

This collection is a great way to introduce someone to the greatest living poet. Metaphysical issues of meaning stand alongside the most mundane topics of sex, trains and blues music. The art of poetry lies on the same page as a simplicity of writing, story and imagery. Tennyson can write deeply and technical; Andrea Gibson's poetry can reach anyone viscerally. How does Collins do both simultaneously?
Winter Syntax, an absurdly beautiful poem, tells the truth about language, that "the More...

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Apr 14, 2009

Paula rated it:

Most of these poems either I've read before myself or have heard Collins read aloud. That would be, of course, because this is a collection of poems from previous books as well as poems that were new upon this book's publication. Quite frankly, I think this was published because Collins didn't have enough poems for a new collection of poetry but still wanted to get something out around the time he was poet laureate.

Anyway, I might have rated this better had more of my favorites been More...

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Dec 21, 2009

Bryce rated it:

I'm a Billy Collins fanatic, and this is an amalgam of what he (or, more likely, his editor and publisher) thought were some of his best from each collection leading up to it (I think it encompasses 4 collections, but not 100% sure).

Annnnnnd...it's delightful. I think I preferred "Picnic, Lightning" to this, but this collection is the breadth of his work and it's a better combination of all his works than most other poets could wish for. But I think that's because most More...

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Sep 18, 2011

Les rated it:

I love Billy Collins' poems. I know he is lauded as being accessible. He is. Mostly though he is clever and downright hilarious at times. As all good poets he twists words and ideas just enough to make you see the world differently. His writing is warm and his subjects are often everyday thoughts and ideas--nothing esoteric here. Collins'poetry makes me want to read more poetry . . . and not just his.

Highlights are numerous in this collection, but include:

Plight of the Trouba More...

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Dec 23, 2008

Tawny rated it:

Favorite Lines:

From "Books"
From the heart of this dark, evacuated campus
I can hear the library humming in the night,
a choir of authors murmuring inside their books
along the unlit, alphabetical shelves,
Giovanni Pontano next to Pope, Dumas next to his son,
each one stitched into his own private coat,
together forming a low, gigantic chord of language.

From "Marginalia"
We have all seized the white perimeter as More...

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Apr 22, 2011

Veic added it

You are invited to a Poetry Reading on Thursday, July 24 at the Petter House.

If so inclined, please bring a piece of poetry or prose for sharing out loud. Any style, any presentation, any length as long as everyone gets some floor space. Original work is welcome. It would be fun to come away with a list of poets and/or authors for future reading. Listeners only also welcome!

Details:
83 Applewood Lane, Williston
Home phone 879-5461
Swimming available weather More...

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Dec 20, 2008

Nikki rated it:

I don't want to give this back to the library! The poems are simple, clever, funny, and still profound; readable enough that I combed straight through the whole book without skipping a single line, but artful enough that I want to read it all again to look for what else is there. I read some out loud to my sister and enjoyed them even more that way (she did too, both of us laughing). I think I've fallen in love with poetry all over again.

Favorites: "Lines Lost Among Trees" More...

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Nov 01, 2009

Mike rated it:

This book was like finding $200 and not feeling guilty. Billy Collins is a famous American poet. So, of course, he had published nine books before this one and I had never heard of him. I first heard him reading his poems on the radio and he was making me laugh. Reading these poems was such a pleasure, like going on vacation to a beautiful island; or discovering a new dish at a new restaurant. They put me in a reflective, pleasant mood. And most amazingly, reading them made me think, “Why More...

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Aug 17, 2009

Tara rated it:

I have to be honest: I am not a well-versed fan of poetry. I have a very simple view of it. I want my poetry to be metaphorical or reveal some deeper meaning in life. I won't object to some rhyming verses either. While Mr. Collins ddi have quite a few poems that I enjoyed, most of the poems in this book did not adhere to my aforementioned classifications. I feel that I would have enjoyed it if I understood poety more, but as a simple reader, the book was a bit of a task to get through. It did no More...

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Nov 14, 2009

Tamlynem rated it:

I don't read a lot of poetry and reading it makes me think of dissecting poems in 8th grade. Reading Billy Collins, a former poet laureate, was a nice way to ease back into the world of poetry.
I remembered this book after hearing someone, probably Garrison Keillor, read a poem from it aloud. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to read more poetry but didn't know where to start. He's witty, sad and only sometimes cryptic. Reading his poems makes me wish I was better at " More...

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Jul 11, 2010

Marie rated it:

Snapshot: Sailing Alone Around the Room is a collection of poems gathered from US Poet Laureate Billy Collins’s many earlier collections. The poems in this collection span most of Collins’s career as a writer, from 1988 to the date of publication in 2001, and offer a range of thematic focus and difficulty for a variety of reading levels and interests. Collins is skilled at balancing the simple with the complex and can be appreciated by a range of readers. He does not write about the extraordi More...

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Jun 27, 2009

Ashley rated it:

When I mentioned I wanted to read poetry as a change of pace, my brother and sister-in-law recommended Billy Collins. He was the US Poet Laureate a few years ago and he came to BYU last year. I really enjoyed most of his poems. Definitely accessible and fun, but also poignant and thought-provoking. He also writes a lot about literature, poetry, art, and history, and with my Humanities background, I really appreciated it. I also like reading poems because I can just pick it up, read one or t More...

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Apr 12, 2009

Chris rated it:

Billy Collins makes everyone feel like they can read poetry and makes most people feel like they can write it, and for that I thank him. That should be said first. As for the poems themselves, even this Greatest Hits collection is hit or miss. He's at times charming and irresistibly funny and at other times frustratingly self-aware. Among my favorites: "Winter Syntax," "Purity," "Marginalia," "Picnic, Lightning," and the clear favorite "Reading an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 13, 2008

Chase rated it:

I have to be honest in writing this review because that's my nature. I bought this book years ago while on active duty in the military and it was a busy time, a time made even busier because I was burning the mid night oil working on my own book. I heard about "America's Poet Laureate" Billy Collins and since that's in my vein so to speak, figured I had to check him out.

For those of you who gave this book less than a five, I encourage you to read it again when you have act More...

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Mar 27, 2008

Mary rated it:

America's poet laureate -- here's an example -- I haven't read everything he's written, but I've loved everything I've read!

Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes

First, her tippet made of tulle,
easily lifted off her shoulders and laid
on the back of a wooden chair.
And her bonnet,
the bow undone with a light forward pull.
Then the long white dress, a more
complicated matter with mother-of-pearl
buttons down the back,
so tiny and num More...

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Dec 07, 2007

Lynn rated it:

By Lynn Hoffman "author: The New Short Course in...

I'm told that most modern poets don't like Billy
Collins. Good, I feel better now about not liking most modern poets. Collins tells little stories of
the inside and outside world, composes jokes small
and large, points to the obvious, leaves some
interesting part unsaid, tickles the daylights out
of you and makes everything seem new again.

The title is, I guess, a reference to More...

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Jun 18, 2007

Liam rated it:

I'm not good at reading poetry. It's not completely my fault, most poetry out there seems to be bad. When poetry is good, I fuck it up by trying to read it like any other book, plowing through it instead of dwelling over the words. I am beginning to believe that poetry is best heard read by the author. I accidentally saw Billy Collins read once and it blew me away. Did I mention he's a former U.S. Poet Laureate? Anyway, people have begun setting his reading to animation on youtube. You can just More...

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Aug 16, 2010

Dan rated it:

I like his early poems best. They were almost like something Charles Simic might have written if he had lived through no history, in the suburbs. But as the book (a compilation of several of his books) progressed, the poems got looser, less muscular, less weird ... and less impressive. There's no tension in these poems - no violence, no conflict, no emotional confusion, almost no hint of sex. He does write well and with humor about writing and teaching writing, and those were among the most enjo More...

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