Poetry From Billy Collins

Billy Collins often portrays places in two ways. He often seems to have mixed feelings about a place. In "The Lesson" Collins is describing his relationship with History. He seems to be studying history so much that he believes he is actually living in it and has a love/hate relationship with it; as if he understands it so well at times that it feels like a good friend and at others it seems distant, agitated, and unfamiliar.

Collins also feels uneasy about writing in his poem "Madmen;" describing his insecurities about writing. These insecurities come from times when he is overly confident and begins to talk about works that he has not finished yet; "jinxing" the writing. He feels so confident about writing that he sabotages it for himself. It is very similar to my experiences with golf. If I'm playing particularly well to begin the round, I start to think too much about how unusual and rare the round is and I immediately lose focus. I no longer play well because I get ahead of myself and think about the finished product when I should be taking it one shot at a time. Collins should be taking his writing slow and carefully but instead he thinks about the finished poem and loses the specific details that the writing would have been composed of. Of course this is going to provoke uncomfortable, mixed feelings in Collins about writing.