'An Analysis Of Billy Collins Divorce'

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Billy Collins is a famous American poet who uses everyday language to appeal to his audience. Collins is a true wordsmith who can pack a lot of meaning into only a few short sentences; his poem Divorce does exactly that. Divorce is a short poem consisting of only 18 words and two stanzas composed of two lines each. Collins ability to concentrate so much meaning into such a short poem shows his mastery of metaphors.
The brevity of the poem is important because Collins is effectively giving the reader the parts of a divorce that he feels are most relevant. He is cutting out all the other moments that lead a couple to divorce such as the bickering and the loss of love over time. Instead, Collins is discussing the end result of the change that happens in a relationship, he is showing the contrast of the two extreme places. His constant use of juxtaposing images throughout the poem show that there is a clear love loss by the time these two people start their relationship, never believing that they could end arguing over the bitter details of splitting their …show more content…

By using language that is reminiscent it signals to the reader that the following description is something that is long gone and probably missed by those who enjoyed it. Moreover, the word once is able to evoke an emotional response of pity for the two spoons because the reader already knows that it will not last. The happy imagery is going to be replaced with resentment. He goes on to describe spoons lying in a bed; this is a clear metaphor for a married couple contentedly sleeping in their bed together. In fact, “two spoons in bed” (Collins 1) creates an environment that is intimate. A spoon itself has a soft look; thinking of them as utensils in a bed together conjures the imagery of two people lovingly “spooning” one another. The reader can take from this that the two people were content at one

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