Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/04/07/A_Selection_of_Poems_by_Billy_Collins
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poem, “The Lanyard.”
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Poet Billy Collins is a unique literary figure – a widely read contemporary poet. The former US Poet Laureate and New York State Poet has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation, though his most dramatic honors come from a wide and appreciative readership. Collins’s poetry collections, including The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the Room, and Picnic, Lightening, have broken records for poetry sales. His writing is marked by inventiveness beyond traditional poetry forms with ironic twists and lyrical turns of phrase that resonate powerfully. An advocate for integrating poetry into everyday life, Collins compiled the anthologies Poetry 180 and 180 More with poems for every day of a typical school year. Billy Collins has been a professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York since 1968 – City Arts & Lectures
Billy Collins is the author of several books of poetry and two anthologies of contemporary poetry, including The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems; The Arts of Drowning, which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall prize; and Questions About Angels, which won the National Poetry Series in 1990. He is also a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College (CUNY). Collins served as US Poet Laureate (2001-2003) and as New York State Poet Laureate (2004-2006). Collins’ poetry has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among many other journals and periodicals. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has won several awards and prizes.
Duration : 0:3:56
[youtube 0EjB7rB3sWc]
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I made one in the …
I made one in the Cub Scouts. Only now I realize how little use those things were. His poem made me see my own funny seriousness about getting it right. It was a kind of magic, though. Billy Collin’s imagination makes him great.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
callooh, callay!
callooh, callay!
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I find this poem to …
I find this poem to be aggresively hilarious, I laugh and cry uncontrollably when I hear this version, YIP
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Oh frabjous day!
Oh frabjous day!
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I was just about to …
I was just about to reply to that when I saw this. Glad I caught it or I would have felt silly and redundant. As for the stereotype, I think it exists for some people, but I don’t think it has anything to do with Proust’s petite madeleine in the Swann’s Way Cambray (Overture), which Collins refers too in this WONDERFUL poem.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
It’s interesting …
It’s interesting hearing it read out loud…I don’t know if I see it as humorous as the audience did,(that is not to say that it’s without humor). Putsit in another perspective that’s for sure. I’m interested to hear other’s thoughts.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
definitely a …
definitely a reference to Proust.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
In American culture …
In American culture, the French are stereotyped as being snotty and novelists are also stereotyped as being snotty. I’m not saying that French novelists are snotty, but I am saying that the stereotype exists.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
A better answer: …
A better answer: This reference is certainly to the French novelist Marcel Proust’s famous novel, Remembrance of Things Past. The narrator eats a sort of “cookie” (a “Madeleine”) and is fully carried away into the past. Collins’s poetry is full of such literary references.
Who says French novelists are snotty?
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
that is a very good …
that is a very good answer. thank you, kind sir.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
He means that there …
He means that there are little things in this world that are like gateways into our childhoods. Some people might be more likely to guard the fact of childish activity that we all, without exception, experience.
A French novelist is stereotyped as a very snotty type of person, but cookies are almost synonymous with childhood, so he’s saying that the word lanyard for him sent him back to his childhood for a second just like a cookie might for a French novelist.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
i really like this …
i really like this poem, but there is one line a cannot understand. what does he mean by a “cookie nibbled by a French novelist”?
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Now that youre …
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December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I love this poem so …
I love this poem so much! Billy Collins is brilliant.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
tremendous message, …
tremendous message, the archaic truth had me in tears
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
ah yes… one of my …
ah yes… one of my favorite by billy collins.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
its amazing how his …
its amazing how his voice perfectly matches the tone and mood of the poem..
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
thats perfect! …
thats perfect! Kevin Spacey could almost do him better than Billy Collins does himself lol
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Eventually when …
Eventually when they produce the movie about Billy Collins’ life, they need to tap Kevin Spacey for the role!
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Calloo, Callay, …
Calloo, Callay, what a banner day this is! To discover all these Billy Collins’ poems on Youtube. Little nuggets of wonderment buried between hours and hours of pet antics, Led Zepplinesque guitar lessons, and endless political rants. It’s sort of like tripping over a Ince and Mayhew Elbow chair in the middle of IKEA.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
How can this be …
How can this be bettered?? It can’t ! and that’s what makes it great as the author is.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
For mothers, a …
For mothers, a lanyard IS enoughthe small gifts are the sweetest ones.
What a wonderful, poignant poem.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I’ve got it so bad, …
I’ve got it so bad, that I’m going up into my mom’s attic today to look for lanyards I made at Girl Scout camp in 1970…..oh well, why not?
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Word.
Word.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I can’t hear this …
I can’t hear this enough…I’m sending it to my mother and to all my friends for Mother’s Day…it is extraordinary.