Rating: 
Summary: Thank you, Billy Collins
Review: Thank you for this book and showing us that poetry lives in our daily lives, can be light and whimsical, and that there's poetry and humor all around us if we choose to see it. The imagery of that annoying barking dog that we all know about barking out his notes in the symphony was just such an example of seeing the humor and poetry in our daily lives. This book will bring poetry into the same room with you. It is appropriately named as I found myself looking around the room for examples of poetry in daily life while reading this book. Great approach! I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy contemporary poetry.
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Summary: How to be hip *and* overeducated....
Review: Oh, I adore this man. He is funny and loving and human in all of our classic and frail forms. I'm kind of highbrow, overanalytical and a bit of a literary snob. Billy Collins satisfies all of those urges in me -- to be literary and speak to one another on a fairly developed level. He gets there. But, he's also base and sexy and manly, and that pleases me, too. This collection of poems amuses -- but it's not as remarkably interesting as some of his prior work. This book is, however, an excellent way to get those who tend to be immune to poetry's come hither glances, to embrace it..... As William Carlos Williams has said, this is important work: "It is difficult to get the news from poems, but men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is so funny - my partner and I read it out loud to each other, and fall over laughing at many of them. Collins has a great sense of humor.
Rating:
Summary: Real Poetry for Real People
Review: The poetry of Billy Collins invites comparison to that of Robert Frost. Both are beautiful to hear, and to read, and one is left with the sense that both are in contact with something much deeper than themselves. In addition, both are criticized by some as simplistic, of not having much to say. Collins, like Frost, mines everyday life for its eternal moments, and conveys the timelessness of the mundane in ways that spark the reader to identify with the poet, and then to find something spiritual in the simplicity of the language. Frost's setting is rural New England, whereas Collins writes about the particularity of his own room, and his own life. If you have ever been turned off by poetry that doesn't seem to make any effort to connect to everyday life, then you owe it to yourself to try Billy Collins.
Rating: 
Summary: E-Z READING
Review: This is contemporary poetry in its most dumbed-down form. Collins expects little from his readers, and apparently expects little from himself. Accepted on its own terms, this is okay stuff--agreeable the way a sitcom can be agreeable when your mind is too tired to engage something beautifully complex.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine poems, too few new ones.
Review: I enjoy Billy Collins' poems, but I do not feel this book is worthwhile if you already own his earlier books. His books are all pretty recent and in print. There are no obscure gems unearthed. To spend the cost of a hardcover on merely 20 new poems seems a lot. I would have just preferred a full new collection. A retrospective would be more appropriate in another decade or two.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Not My Cuppa Tea...
Review: I just don't enjoy Collins. His work is very bland for my taste. It has a cutesy kind of charm that wears itself out fairly quickly. Nothing profound or earth-shattering or even thought provoking. Of course I would assume that to be crowned poet laureate, one's work would have to be conventional and non-controversial to the degree that it would be acceptable for the mass market. It is obvious that is what Collins was striving for. In my opinion this work is totally uninspired. I think I would rather read Ginsberg.
Rating:
Summary: My Review of Sailing Alone Around The Room
Review: This is a wonderful book of poems. The subjects are so diverse and the titles of the poems are unique. There are several titles that caught my eye such as The Death of the Hat, Shoveling Snow With Buddha, My Best Cigarette, Victoria's Secret, and Questions about Angels. One of the most descriptive and imaginative poems in the book is Victoria's Secret. He conjures up a variety of emotions in this poem by looking at the pictures and facial expressions of the models in the catalog. I enjoy the poem The Death of A Hat, because it talks about an ordinary object and the symbolism that was formally attached to it. According to this poem, a hat symbolized a sense of identity and loyalty. My Best Cigarette is a great poem along the same logic as death of a hat. A cigarette to Billy Collins was like a catalyst in the writing process. It was the best way to relax for him. One of the most personal poems in this book is the Iron Bridge. Collins remembers his mother who recently has died and compares her to a bridge that is as old as her. He is trying to come to terms with his loss and move on with his life in this beautiful poem. I love the poems in this book with a subtle message. One poem in particular is Advice to Writers. In this poem, Collins says that good writing is polished writing. Therefore, the writing process should be deliberate and never rushed. I loved the poem Aristole. It has so many creative metaphors about the cycle of life contained in the poem. Collins compares the beginning of life to a fish wriggling onto land. He also compares the beginning of life to a first move in a chess game. In the same poem, he compares the middle of life like cities filled with people with a million schemes and looks. Finally, Collins compares the end of life to the last elephant in a parade. I found all the metaphors in this poem to be so insightful. Billy Collins has several poems about animals in this book. He associates different animals with several human feelings. He writes about the plight of tortured cows in the poem Afternoon with Irish Cows. He ponders the reason for the blindness of mice which is an allusion to the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice. He writes about how a dog can feel so alone and unwanted in the poem To A Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years From Now. Some of Billy Collins poems are obviously composed just by observing everyday life. A good example of this is poem The Waitress. In this poem, he writes about all the people who have waited on him in his life. Collins imagines how liberating it must feel for waitresses to be free of their duties in a wonderful metaphor. He writes about how the movies can help someone escape the pressures of everyday life. Sailing Alone Around the Room is an excellent book. Reading it has inspired me to continue writing my own poetry.
Rating:
Summary: of charm & wit
Review: You can tell a lot about his poetry just from that he writes with the name "Billy" rather than William or possibly Bill. He writes with a poetic clarity & intellect of great genius, but he does seem to cut himself short sometimes. It's very hard to read his writing & not be rapt with his humor & insights. But he does sometimes...or often...or, well, as much as possible...prefer to be coy rather than write many of the great thoughts you know he's capable of & probably has thought while having coffee & oranges for breakfast. At any rate, he's a great poet laureate, because he does invite many more people into poetry than would otherwise find interest. A new & selected poems by him now is perfect, & from the first poem about the barking dog solo that made Beethoven famous to the last poem, about throwing paper airplanes at the reader, it's a very fun book.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent, accessible, striking poetry
Review:
Billy Collins describes his poetry best himself, in "Lines Lost Among Trees", when he writes of "...the little insight at the end/wagging like the short tail/of a perfectly obedient spaniel/sitting by the door." Many of the poems throughout this collection feature a turn of phrase- if not a twist, then a recapitulation- in the final stanza that makes the reader draw a breath, then say "Yes. That's it." There's little that's academic or self-consciously poetical about Collins' writing, although he is both a professor and a poet for whom his art is subject matter as much as medium. Some of the best, most touching and funniest works in this collection deal with poetry itself, but none are contrived. There's sensuality along with intelligence- "Osso Buco", "The Best Cigarette" and others deal concretely but delicately with the sensations of living and a poet's response to them. There's jazz in plenty, evoked, imitated and responded to, and plenty of musings (and musings on musings) on the poetical old standbys of sex and death. And it all works. I couldn't find lines better than Collins' own to begin this review, nor to end it (from "Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause to Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles"): How easy he has made it for me to enter here,
to sit down in a corner;
cross my legs like his, and listen.
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