Blog post #2
In "Litany," Billy Collins avails of a series of metaphors for a lover to communicate to his beloved. However, many of these deliberately fail, stray off topic, or seem lunatic. Write six questions (the right questions, of course) that you have for Collins about his poem and his rhetorical strategy.
In "Litany," Billy Collins avails of a series of metaphors for a lover to communicate to his beloved. However, many of these deliberately fail, stray off topic, or seem lunatic. Write six questions (the right questions, of course) that you have for Collins about his poem and his rhetorical strategy.
What made you think you could make another poet's poem better?
Why did you only rewrite the first two lines of the poem?
What comparisons would you think would be appropriate to describe love?
Why is "the bread and the knife the crystal goblet and the wine" used? Is it referring to a religious matter?
Did you just look at all of the objects and things of nature around you and compare them to love to prove a point?
Why do you think the original author chose these specific comparisons? "you are the dew on the morning grass and the burning wheel of the sun"
The question about the religious connotations of the goblet and the wine and bread is an important question. I feel like Billy might be jumping the gun with his mockery of this metaphor, because it probably does have a deeper meaning, such as the question you posed about the possible religious context. I really think Bily just thinks that the metaphor is random and pointless, but the author probably had a lot of feeling behind it.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Expect a rush of comments from me today; I finally have time to do this!
I love your first question! As I was watching Billy Collins read his poem, I was thinking the same thing. Especially since he claimed to have taken a poem that he thought wasn't very good and made fun of it with his poem!
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