Rating: 
Summary: This Is Guy Is The Real Thing, I Kid You Not...
Review: Billy Collins is a poet of body and soul, someone who knows the bite and pleasure of a turn of phrase that enlivens like a shot of pretty-good Irish whisky. "American" is too narrow a designation for poems whose aim is to direct us to the truly human--the whimsical and the sorrowful, the oddly-tough animal underlying that humanity. For those who, like Collins, have the mantle and designation of "master poet" bestowed upon them repeatedly the trick is to earn that praise. Billy Collins has certainly earned whatever well-intentioned men and women may say of him, especially the good: his is a finely honed voice and, at times, that voice wickers into a wonderfully quirky track of experience that never excludes the accidental and fleeting. One cannot say enough about such good and decent men, or their works.
Rating:
Summary: Oustanding, accessible and enjoyable!
Review: Billy Collins makes wanna-be poets like myself grit their teeth in frustration! His deceptively simple poems have an intriguing way of surprising the reader with insights and fascinating self-revelations. And the subjects! Victoria's Secret catalogs? Hats? Emily Dickinson--undressing!? What a pleasure to read these and all the other poems in this book. I asked for Collins' other books for Christmas and have been similarly impressed, but my opinion is that "Sailing" contains most of the best poems from those previous editions. Buy it, read it, reread it, share it, as Collins would have all of us do.
Rating:
Summary: a real American poet
Review: You may find yourself reading critically acclaimed poetry in "The New York Review of Books" and other highbrow literary journals, only to think, "This stuff is horrible!" So you pick up your dog-eared copy of Keats, Shelley, or Byron, and read those more familiar odes of yesteryear, lamenting that today's poets are too alien to enjoy. It's not that you're not intelligent or avant-garde enough; it's just that the poetry of today really is bizarre. For you, reader, I recommend Billy Collins. He is critically acclaimed indeed--the Library of Congress' U.S. Poet Laureate, in fact--but he is also approachably good. Like Garrison Keillor, Mr. Collins understands the value of writing funny, and his dry, New York wit punctuates each verse like a breath of fresh air. When I first heard him read his poetry on NPR, I realized that there really is good poetry being written out there in America. Collins is the real thing, and it's writers like him that are bringing poetry back to popularity. I truly admire his work, and you will too.
Rating:
Summary: Great Poems
Review: Billy Collins' previous works have been bestsellers, a rare achievement in poetry publishing. He is one of a rare breed-a popular poet. Billy Collins is the current poet laureate of the United States. His previous collections include The Apple that Astonished Paris, The Art of Drowning, and Questions about Angels.
Sailing Alone Around the Room combines poems from all his previous collections as well as a few new ones. It is, in effect, a "greatest hits book". Collins is a poet who does not specialize in any one topic. His inspiration for poems seems to come from reflection and everyday life. The poems he writes about everyday life are not simple. They incorporate simile and metaphor, and give the reader's brain some exercise.
This compilation of previously-published and new poems showcases the many facets of Collins' style. He experiments with ancient forms such as the paradelle and the sonnet, poking fun, and producing images. All the while his self-deprecating humor shows through.
Billy Collins work appeals to a wide audience. His work is very accessible, and if not for its sometime adult subject matter would be appropriate for and understood by children. His poetry is funny on the surface, but when closely read reveals new meanings.
Rating:
Summary: This Is Guy Is The Real Thing, I Kid You Not...
Review: Billy Collins is a poet of body and soul, someone who knows the bite and pleasure of a turn of phrase that enlivens like a shot of pretty-good Irish whisky. "American" is too narrow a designation for poems whose aim is to direct us to the truly human--the whimsical and the sorrowful, the oddly-tough animal underlying that humanity. For those who, like Collins, have the mantle and designation of "master poet" bestowed upon them repeatedly the trick is to earn that praise. Billy Collins has certainly earned whatever well-intentioned men and women may say of him, especially the good: his is a finely honed voice and, at times, that voice wickers into a wonderfully quirky track of experience that never excludes the accidental and fleeting. One cannot say enough about such good and decent men, or their works.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly devoid of tweed and pomp
Review: If you haven't bought a book of poetry in a while (or, perhaps, ever), Billy Collins's most recent collection is a good choice. His poems are unfailingly accessible and entertaining, so easy to read they make poetry look as if it's easy to write. Collins abhors lofty, incomprehensible verse and yet manages to reconcile his down home persona with an obvious love of good wine, good jazz, and reference books of varying sizes. I'm off now to the park with my dog, my coffee, and my copy of Billy Collins.
Rating:
Summary: Sailing Around the Room
Review: This book of clean, unaffected poems held my attention completely; I didn't want to put it down. Collins savors each moment in many dimensions, writing what we know but don't see about life's simplest moments. He writes with deep insight couched in words that fill my heart, comfort my worries, introduce me to new facets of my own journey. I highly recommend the poetry of Billy Collins.
Rating:
Summary: The un-poetry
Review: I generally don't like poetry, and I'm an English Major at a large university. However, when one of my professors included a piece from Billy Collins on a first-of-quarter hand out, I knew that this poet was unlike your typical flowery, treacly poet of yesterday. Billy Collins' works isn't the poetry you may remember -- the boring stuff wrapped up in an unintelligable language for you to decipher. His words pierce your heart, make you smile, laugh and sometimes, nod with a deep understanding, or shed a tear. I purchased this collection of Mr. Collins' work, and highly recommend it. Especially to poetry-phobes. It won't change your mind about all poetry, but will give you a benchmark for quality, contemporary poetry.
Rating: 
Summary: A failure
Review: This is the first book by Billy Collins that I have read, and so I must admit that my opinion may be relatively uninformed, although I think it is safe enough to assume that this is a fair representation of his work thus far. It seems to me that Collins' preoccupation with accessibility has overpowered his poetry, if indeed the contents of this book can be said to be poems at all, rather than cut-up prose. Dullness is the recurring characteristic of the collection, and the famous Collins charm wears thin very quickly. The value of poetry lies in how something is said, rather than what is said, and Sailing Alone Around the Room does not provide that value.
Rating:
Summary: I'm convinced
Review: I first throught I wouldn't like Billy Collins. There's a kind of superiority to his tone at times, and his subject matter seems to be about subjects always covered in poetry, but I have to admit that reading parts of this book has really convinced me. Amazing. Seems like he's not taking himself wholly seriously, which is rare to see in poets.
|
