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Title: Billy Collins - Litany
Added: May 28, 2008
Author: ForaTv
Duration: 4:11
Description:
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/04/07/A_Selection_of_Poems_by_Billy_CollinsFormer U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins discusses stealing material from other writers, and reads his poem, "Litany."-----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 & LecturesBilly 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.
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Channel: Entertainment
Tags: poems poetry reading reads author poets stealing steals funny comedy comic on writing writers creative foratv fora.tv fora tv
poems poetry reading reads author poets stealing steals funny comedy comic on writing writers creative foratv fora.tv fora tv
Youtube Comments: 155
Avesetsuna Says:
Jan 29, 2011 - See, the written poem alone is just so beautiful, and has such expressive and well thought-out imagery. It's almost sappy! But then I watched this... and realized how hilarious it is. I'm embarrassed I only ever looked at it one way xD What a stitch.
llamala2010 Says:
Mar 6, 2011 - Good stand up comedy, clever satire of bad poetry - but I wouldn't call it great poetry by any means.
tattoofthesun Says:
Mar 20, 2011 - @llamala2010 agreed on each point, especially the last; most importantly the last.
jthmguitarist Says:
Apr 2, 2011 - @baalynduh probably because nobody around you was laughing when you read it
roxanneivey Says:
Apr 10, 2011 - Thank you so much for posting this! I saw Collins in KC during his reign as poet laureate, and have never laughed so much in my life : ) Now I can share this with friends who weren't as fortunate...
javagal65 Says:
Apr 16, 2011 - His hair over his left ear, makes me laugh!
celticbattleaxe Says:
Apr 30, 2011 - I've heard Billy Collins at the Dodge Poetry Festival 2010!!!! HE ROCKS!!!!!
bryanandkatfeb3 Says:
May 5, 2011 - hahahhahahah this is just to halirous!!!!! hhahahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah too funny!!!!! im so glad im getting write about this in my lit class hahahahahahahahahahhaha wait.... so more hahahahahahahahaahahhahaha
tompouceful Says:
May 26, 2011 - @llamala2010 You're so right. It's not great. It's to tiny to be great. It's so tiny in it's tinyness, that it becomes bad, it's no poetry at all, it's bad to be great, it's great and to tiny by any means, in fact it's not there but inside the clever satire, but than bad, thank you for the intellectual wake up call. In nearly make the mistake to find it beautiful.
audball911 Says:
Jun 30, 2011 - Actually, seeing the humor kinda ruined the poem for me. Before, I was enchanted by the romance in it (it's there, even if in jest). Now it's just a big joke. :(
kerron68 Says:
Jul 3, 2011 - didnt get it.
macnolds Says:
Jul 10, 2011 - @kerron68 as collins states in his pre-amble here, he's taking a jab at a very old and well-known form of poetry where the author compares his lover to various images in nature in order to flatter her. the title of the piece, "litany," suggests such poems are boring, tedious lists like those in church processes. so he makes fun of this by choosing strange, unromantic images to compare his lover to. he embellishes himself and remarks on how absurd it is to compare his lover to prettier things.
PicturePerfectJames Says:
Jul 10, 2011 - Blly Collins is a national treasure....he's got some great material on Praire Home Companion.....Love "Marco Polo"
kerron68 Says:
Jul 10, 2011 - @macnolds thanks man! i'm not good with these things....
bulgarianmimi Says:
Jul 14, 2011 - LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
eyewould Says:
Aug 24, 2011 - @audball911 I agree. I don't know why people are laughing. Why are people laughing? Why aren't you on your knees crying at the beauty of these words?You are so much to me but you are not everything. You are so many things in my life. These aren't lines of jokes. These are declarations. This is honesty, humility and undistilled love.
CrawdaddyJoe Says:
Sep 6, 2011 - @eyewould Um.... this is a humorous poem, man. It's a parody of that style of poetry. He breaks the usual tradition and starts playing with it. 'There is no way you are the pine scented air'. He goes into absurd imagery, like parrots on generals' heads, and stuff that completely breaks the standard cliches of the style, like 'boots in the corner'. He goes into self-parody and absurdity, 'I am the sound of rain on the roof'. It's a parody.
snavedizzle Says:
Sep 10, 2011 - @eyewould I'm pretty sure that I'm justified in saying that you, my friend, are completely and utterly wrong.
neighborhaber Says:
Oct 19, 2011 - For hilarious poems about Middle Age .....Go to Middle Age Sucks by neighborhaber
SwordsDragonsAndCoke Says:
Oct 29, 2011 - @baalynduh so it takes people laughing at it for you to realize its sarcastic?
bitulok3131 Says:
Oct 30, 2011 - Your good at the poem
AccioNerdfighter Says:
Nov 1, 2011 - He is a genius
ptercottontail Says:
Nov 22, 2011 - @PointlessVidsInc the 3 year old legitimately reads it so incredibly
youthank8 Says:
Jan 30, 2012 - such a great poet. one of my biggest inspirations.
frankjuuh Says:
Jan 14, 2011 - @PointlessVidsInc Tosser.