I think this is a wonderful question. It's so simple but when you think about the answer, that's when things get complicated. "You are the bread and the knife" Billy Collins reassures that he is not the bread and the knife. Why not? Why is not one person the bread and one person the knife? How can one person be both the bread and the knife that cuts it? To me that's exclaiming that the "lover" in the poem is their own worst enemy and overall, seems like an insult. That would explain why Billy is so concerned with making sure you know he is not the bread and the knife, as if he is above and superior to that metaphor. It almost gives off a selfish vibe to Billy Collins, like he does not want to share his metaphors.
2. Do you feel that cliche metaphors are ineffective at conveying strong meaning?
This is interesting because it is quite clear that Billy Collins thinks that cliche metaphors are useless in describing love, but I disagree. Love is something so broad and unexplainable that no one has the right to say what is and isn't true about it. Metaphors describing love are probably one of the most used things in the English language. Love has been compared to a vast majority of different feelings, objects, and events ranging from war to butterflies so who is to say that cliche metaphors don't work in describing love? I think that anything can convey a strong meaning if you truly believe it.
3. Were you trying to gain a positive, or negative response from the audience?
I think that Billy Collins was trying to just get any reaction he could from his audience. Love is always going to be a controversial topic so by choosing to talk about love in a sarcastic manner, Billy unleashed many possibilities for positive and negative reactions. I personally, respond both positively and negatively. I agree that it seems nonsensical to describe love with such meaningless words, but at the same time, there are no other words that better describe what love is.
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