The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems

Billy Collins is a great introduction to contemporary poetry. He uses plain language and simple straightforward structure that treats a first-time poetry reader nicely. It’s good training for the reader unaccustomed to how poetry communicates, transmitting some of the same rhetorical complexities of most poetry in a sleek, unimposing form. Collins’ writing is witty and often serene. And now and again he somehow ends up being profound. I find myself returning to him when my mind wants a lazy Sunday stroll.

Since my first reading, I have heard some complaints about how Collins treats certain subjects. Only one of his poems comes to mind, one where he objectifies a woman/women in an image that works toward the greater point of the poem. Not all objectification is pornographic. It is often emotional or intellectual but objectification all the same. So I understand that some of these criticisms are warranted.