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  • Billy Collins Quote - The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.
  • Billy Collins Quote - The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.
  • Billy Collins Quote - The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.
  • Billy Collins Quote - The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.
  • Billy Collins Quote - The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.
  • Billy Collins Quote - The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.
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  3. blue
  4. red
  5. brown
  6. white

The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.

Billy Collins

More Billy Collins Quotes

  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - I hope the poem, as it goes on, gets more complicated, a little more demanding, a little more ambiguous or speculative, so that we’re drifting away from the casual beginning of the poem into something a little more serious.

    I hope the poem, as it goes on, gets more complicated, a little more demanding, a little more ambiguous or speculative, so that we’re drifting away from the casual beginning of the poem into something a little more serious.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - I’m a line-maker. I think that’s what makes poets different from prose-writers. That’s the main way. We think, not just in sentences the way prose writers do but also in lines. So we’re doing these two things at the same time.

    I’m a line-maker. I think that’s what makes poets different from prose-writers. That’s the main way. We think, not just in sentences the way prose writers do but also in lines. So we’re doing these two things at the same time.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - All they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

    All they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - I’m very conscious of the fact that every line should have a cadence to it. It should contribute to the progress of the poem. And that the ending of the line is a way of turning the reader’s attention back into the interior of the poem.

    I’m very conscious of the fact that every line should have a cadence to it. It should contribute to the progress of the poem. And that the ending of the line is a way of turning the reader’s attention back into the interior of the poem.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - The sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader’s part in the poet’s autobiographical life, in the poet’s memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions.

    The sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader’s part in the poet’s autobiographical life, in the poet’s memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - High School is the place where poetry goes to die.

    High School is the place where poetry goes to die.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - I write two lines or three lines. I will immediately stop and turn into a reader instead of a writer, and I’ll read those lines as if I had never seen them before and as if I had never written them.

    I write two lines or three lines. I will immediately stop and turn into a reader instead of a writer, and I’ll read those lines as if I had never seen them before and as if I had never written them.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - I felt at some point that I had nothing to lose, and [laughs] maybe I was wrong. I think, you know, there’s always these little autobiographical secrets behind things. I think I was really attacking my earlier self, and this kind of pretentious figure.

    I felt at some point that I had nothing to lose, and [laughs] maybe I was wrong. I think, you know, there’s always these little autobiographical secrets behind things. I think I was really attacking my earlier self, and this kind of pretentious figure.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - I could feel the day offering itself to me, and I wanted nothing more than to be in the moment-but which moment? Not that one, or that one, or that one.

    I could feel the day offering itself to me, and I wanted nothing more than to be in the moment-but which moment? Not that one, or that one, or that one.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - More often than not in poetry I find difficulty to be gratuitous and show-offy and camouflaging, experimental to a kind of insane degree – a difficulty which really ignores the possibility of having a sensible reader.

    More often than not in poetry I find difficulty to be gratuitous and show-offy and camouflaging, experimental to a kind of insane degree – a difficulty which really ignores the possibility of having a sensible reader.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - But my heart is always propped up in a field on its tripod, ready for the next arrow.

    But my heart is always propped up in a field on its tripod, ready for the next arrow.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - Now I would say at any given moment in American life, there are probably 45 poets in airplanes vectoring across the country heading towards…

    Now I would say at any given moment in American life, there are probably 45 poets in airplanes vectoring across the country heading towards…

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - Particularly when I thought of myself as a Wallace Stevens acolyte, I wrote very difficult poetry and I was really guilty of not knowing what I was talking about. I was going for a kind of clever verbal effect. I was trying to sound linguistically or verbally interesting.

    Particularly when I thought of myself as a Wallace Stevens acolyte, I wrote very difficult poetry and I was really guilty of not knowing what I was talking about. I was going for a kind of clever verbal effect. I was trying to sound linguistically or verbally interesting.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - To write poetry is to be very alone, but you always have the company of your influences. But you also have the company of the form itself, which has a kind of consciousness.

    To write poetry is to be very alone, but you always have the company of your influences. But you also have the company of the form itself, which has a kind of consciousness.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - When I wrote I took on the role of the despondent and difficult to understand person. Whereas in life, I was easy to understand, to the point of being simple-minded maybe.

    When I wrote I took on the role of the despondent and difficult to understand person. Whereas in life, I was easy to understand, to the point of being simple-minded maybe.

    BILLY COLLINS
  • Share on Facebook Tweet this! Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Share on Telegram Billy Collins Quote - I saw him looking up at her and what she was doing the way the eyes of saints are painted when they are looking up at God when he is doing something remarkable, something that identifies him as God. Download This Image

    I saw him looking up at her and what she was doing the way the eyes of saints are painted when they are looking up at God when he is doing something remarkable, something that identifies him as God.

    BILLY COLLINS