The Poet Billy Collins

Reading a poem is quite different from hearing it, especially, if the author reads his/her poems to the audience. At this point, it is possible to refer to the oral presentation of poems performed by Billy Collins and reading his poems. Reading and listening his poems have a different impact on the audience not only because of the focus on different communication channels but also because of the different way of the presentation of poems. The poet uses diverse specific elements which come into play in hearing the poems read by the author, and in his overall performance, that help the audience to enhance and sharpen your critical response to his work and change the perception of the poem by the audience.

The author arranges the poem and presents them in the order that he feels comfortable and right. He knows better how to organize the presentation of his poems and they are grouped in the order which the author would like to present his poems to the audience. He arranges poems and organizes the presentation in the way he believes to be right to reach his ends and to have a particular impact on the audience or to communicate messages he wants to convey to the audience. In this regard, reading poems is quite different from the author’s presentation of poems because it is the reader, who decides which poem to read and which not to read. Moreover, it is the reader, who decides, which order to read poems in.

Billy Collins also reveals his humor more vividly and, what is more, he gives insight into certain irony that may be traced in his poems, while in some cases his irony becomes even a sort of self-irony. Such way of presentation of poem is perceived through the face-to-face perception of the poem, when the poet reads it to the audience. In contrast, while reading a poem, the audience cannot always distinguish humor from irony or irony from self-irony and many other issues which may be revealed in the course of the face-to-face communication of the poet and the audience but not in the course of reading a poem.

The emotional drive of reading poems is set by the poet, when he presents poems himself. Instead, the emotional perception of poems is determined, to a significant extent, by the mood and current emotions of the reader.  Being in a good mood, a reader is likely to find some positive aspects in the poem, while, being in a bad mood, the reader is likely to find something negative even in a good, positive poem.

The different perception of poems takes place because of the change of the role the reader and listener experience.  When a reader goes from simply reading the poems to seeing or hearing Collins performs them, the reader becomes a listener. The change of the way of the perception may have a very significant impact on each individual and such impact depends on a person. Some people are good in listening, while others in reading. Hence, the latter will perceive better the poem they read, while the former will perceive better poems performed by the poet.

Nevertheless, there are also changes that are objective and do not depend on psychological specificities of the audience. To put it more precisely, there are such issue as the non-verbal communication which is literally impossible, when one reads a poem. Instead, Billy Collins uses the non-verbal communication very effectively. For example, he always attempts to maintain the eye contact with the audience that helps him to keep the audience focused on his poem and the way he presents it to listeners. Furthermore, readers may have difficulties with getting the main points in the poem, whereas Billy Collins uses changes of his tone, pitch and tempo to make his poems running smoothly and to emphasize the most important points, as well as to overshadow secondary ones.

In addition, in case of Billy Collins’ presentation of his poems, there is always an opportunity for both the poet and his audience to interact. The audience sees the poet, hears the poet and responds to his poems emotionally. The poet, in his turn, can observe the reaction of his audience, he can make remarks to ease the tension, if there is any, he can just throw in some jokes to break the ice which may exist between him and his audience, especially at the beginning of his performance. The audience remains deprived of all of these advantages of the poet’s presentation of his poems. While reading a poem, the audience can hardly track how the mood or emotions of the poet change, as he reads his poems to the audience. The audience cannot communicate or interact with the poet.

On the other hand, reading is probably more thought provoking and more independent compared to listening a poem or poems. To put it more precisely, readers can read and re-read any poem or any part of the poem over and over again, as much as they like or need to understand or simply to enjoy the poem. In case of listening, the audience is totally dependent on the poet, whose lead listeners have to follow.

Nevertheless, there are some things that Collins is up to on the written page and which he attempts to translate to oral performance. His emotions are, in a way, suppressed during his oral presentation that enhances irony in some of his poems, which he also attempts to convey on the written page. The poet also attempts to engage the audience and keep the audience in suspense to bring the audience to the unexpected and often humorous ending of the poem. This is a distinct feature of many of his poems, when he raises serious issues at the beginning of the poem but ends up with mocking at himself. The author also uses the oral performance to empathize points and lines, which he believes to be important and which readers may omit or which significance readers may just under-estimate. In such a way, the poet attempts to get closer to the audience and to convey his messages more succinctly with the help of the oral performance which enhances what he has put on the written page.

Thus, the poet uses the oral presentation to enhance the presentation of his poems to the audience and to make it more accurate and emotionally reach, while reading his poem is more thought-provoking and leaves more room for reflections on points which are interesting to readers. In such a way, the difference between the oral presentation and reading is quite significant because, in the course of the oral presentation, the audience tends to follow the lead of Billy Collins, while reader are more independent because they can read and re-read the poem over and over again and they focus their attention on parts of the poem which are interesting to them rather than on parts which the poet wants them to focus upon.

Works Cited:

Collins, Billy. Aimless Love. New York: Random House. 2013.

Collins, Billy. Horoscopes for the Dead. New York: Random House. 2011.

Collins, Billy. The Rain in Portugal. New York: Random House. 2016.

Kner, Carol Stevens. Billy Collins, The North American Review,  290 (5), 2005, 17–17

Strand Bookstore. An Evening of Poetry with Billy Collins, Horoscopes for the Dead. YouTube. 2012. Web. Accessed July 31, 2018 on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq56QYd3jIs

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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