with

BIOGRAPHY

• 22 March 1941• New York City• Holy Cross College

CRITICS SAY…• “…charming mixture of irony, wit, musing, and tenderness of everyday…”

• “…one of the most accessible American poets…”

AGREEMENTS / DISAGREEMENTS• We agree with…

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• We disagree with…

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KEY THEMES• Out-of-body experiences

• Observations of other people

• Slightly edgy humor

• Negative, often prejudiced views

• Overreactions over small occurances

INFLUENCES• Humorous father

• Learned all types of humor from his experiences with his father

“…maybe a splash of water on the face,

a palmful of vitamins —

but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso…”

• Poetic mother

• “…what inspires my poetry is other poetry.”

The First Night

it never occurred to me that day and nightwould continue to circle each other in the ring of death,

but now you have me wonderingif there will also be a sun and a moonand will the dead gather to watch them rise and set

then repair, each soul alone,to some ghastly equivalent of a bed.Or will the first night be the only night,

a darkness for which we have no other name?

by Billy Collins

WORK CITED FOR PICTURES• http://clatterymachinery.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/billy-collins-action-poetry-collage.jpg

• http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/collinsbilly.html

• http://www.enotes.com/authors/billy-collins