Reading About Billy Collins

I cannot pretend to be a fan of or knowledgeable about poetry. I did, however, pick up Billy Collins' Horoscopes for the Dead on Tuesday. I'm enjoying it, but, knowing little about poetry, as I already mentioned, I decided to look for some writing about Collins.

What I found fascinating about Wages of Fame: The Case of Billy Collins at Contemporary Poetry Review is that it suffers from the same thing the author, Ernest Hilbert, says Collins' poetry suffers from--sameness. It's a lengthy piece that I eventually started skimming because I was reading the same thing over and over again. Collins' writing, technically, is no great shakes. He isn't innovative. He doesn't like obscurity. He wants to make readers comfortable.

I will keep all that in mind. But I didn't have to read anywhere near all that essay to learn that.