What do You think about The Trouble With Poetry - And Other Poems (2007)?
I don't think Billy Collins is the absolute best poet, but he is hands down my personal favorite. I loved this collection, just as I always love his collections, and some of the highlights here were "Bereft," "The Introduction," "Flock," "You, Reader," and "The Drawing Class." "The Lanyard," which happens to be one of my all-time favorite poems, is also in this volume; I first heard Collins read it several years ago on "A Prairie Home Companion," and it totally cracked me up. He's just the greatest. (I'll stop gushing now.)
—Lindsey
I don't generally like poetry.Oh, perhaps a little Robert Frost,and some say parts of the Bible are poetryand I like the Bible.But, other than that, bleah!So my daughter-in-law, Shannon,hoping to retrieve mefrom the land of poetry illiterates,loaned me her book of Billy Collins poems."If you don't like these,"she suggested darkly,"there is no hope for you."So I read Collins' poems,or is it the poems of Collins?Well, no matter, I read them.And what did I find?Not poetry,but philosophic prose brokeninto stacked-up part lines.If this is really poetry,then perhaps I do like it.Flock, for instance,on page 35,is pretty good."Oh," you say,"you just like that onebecause it's so short."Well, I admit it is short,but I didn't like itjust for that.I like it becausethe last three linestickled me.I also liked You, Readerand it's kind of longfor a Collins poem.Although I don't begrudgeCollins first includingrain-soaked windows,ivy wallpaper,and the goldfish circling in its bowlinto his poem.After all, he's supposed to be the poet.Then there's The Lanyard.It is sweet, and I knowmothers are like that,so it rang true.And I like The Studentwhich called to my mindthrough the vortex of timecicada singing in the treesabove the velvety lawnin the yard of the housewe rented in Marylandlong years ago.So thank you, Shannon;you have succeeded.I like more poetry now(if Collins really writes poetry)than I did before.So what is there left to say?Oh yes, see,some brown hens are standing in the rain.
—John
This might be my favorite of his books. I haven't read all of them, but I have read most. It's the only one I can recall where he comes across, at times, as vulnerable or forlorn. He's always a master technician of the line, but also of this delicate, light-as-air tone. In this collection, there is sorrow, even a man contemplating his own mortality. That all really appealed to me. It takes him off the poetry pedestal and places him square in the ranks with the rest of us sincere-hearted fumblers.
—Emma
