The Dead - Billy Collins Animated Poetry

[halynamyroslava]

A lot of thanks

[bramdonga19]

lmao

[catjoekun]

If you are in the Bay Area in California, check out "HereAfterHere," an original show about what we think after we die. It includes videos such as this one, theatre, dance, and magic, all accompanied by original music. Check out hereafterhere(dot)com for more details!!

[dnggitg]

Those pristine pediments, those breathtaking crescents, those elegant... Whoa. You're waxing weird again. "Geeking out," in the American vernacular. Mop that moue off your mug as you ascend the ever-steeper plains, clad in the red James Dean jacket so many mirrors have duplicated, but hitherto with little success.

[dnggitg]

Fossick in a palatial mansion for lycanthropy serum. Lapse into a brown study, and from that pass into a signal malaise, in which capacity the veriest trifles assume gargantuan proportions. You can't wrench your gaze away from them, even when the luminous blue isms thronging on the cobbles and flagstones come clumping in to warble like a heavenly quire of William Morris wallpaper birds.

[dnggitg]

Untether the restive balloons dotting the firmament like red fire ants condemned to constant rebirth by Caesarean operation, venturing farther and farther from the cleaver of intellectual butchery with which you bisect the monistic One. Remember me to the dissenting minorities. Tell 'em Hangdog sent ya.

[LizaLips1]

I don't know why people are so upset about this. It was lovely. Even if you think it's taking the poem too literally it was still an enjoyable video.

[breeeegs]

poetry revolves around atmosphere and emotion more than logic. Poems can have meaning, but they use metaphors and language  to create a mood that people connect with on an unconscious level. Trying to dissect a poem in such a cold amd clinical way is totally missing the point of what poems are meant to do

[Rhapsodist11]

A fabulous poem!

[ZebraFestival]

On Sunday, 12th October 2008, the Jury of the 4th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival decided. The ZEBRA Prize for the best Poetry Film went to Juan Delcán, USA for the film 'The Dead', based on the poem 'The Dead' by Billy Collins.

[TriCountyScholar]

I need a person to do this kind of animation for a poem being read in a doc I'm shooting. I will pay good money, per hour. I'm going to leave this note with others on youtube who are really good with this sort of thing. First one back to me will get the project. Are you interested?

jaredcasey64 at g mail

[juandelkan]

@TriCountyScholar

What's about?

[chintubb]

@TriCountyScholar I AM VERY MUCH INTERESTED EMAIL ME at b.chintu14@yahoo.com within 30 april 2011 .

[MrDCWood]

Beautiful, mate. Simply beautiful.

[zezoka82]

Awsome!!My favorite Poem of Billy Collins! :)

[BernsteinCharles]

Billy Collins has a genius for making the everyday sound totally mundane.

[LithikRob]

@BernsteinCharles Which marries perfectly with your genius for making the retarded sound pointless.

[EllyMcCormack]

Oh that's good. I like this a lot.

[13cheesus14]

I liked the bit with the banana

[21ricky666]

I dont like the narration, it reminds me of the one kid in class that needs to sound everything out, in 11th grade.

[pedodebruja]

"and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes" poiuytresawdxfgchjbklm!!!! that line is the most beautiful

[davidls11]

That's why you shouldn't masturbate outdoors.

[circethesorceress]

this brought me right down to the softest part of the earth after a very bad day.

[smile678]

Aw that is so sweet :C made me sad tho

[ShifaaBashir]

you're good

[FableDoe]

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[DreamCatcherInTheRye]

I've gotta read more Billy Collins!

[dodo64f]

grat animation and it emphasises this great piece of poetry

[MrChange31]

The Dead is one of the first poetry by Billy that I read and not got hook by all his other work! Amazing writer! So simple and beautiful!

[pjdance]

This is awesome! I want a copy for my animation collection!

[lpatinol]

and another

[HeartBrokeDownBlue]

Nice thought!

[TheHdview]

Otto is starting to reconsider some of the choices he has made. The things we want for our selfs and believe they are the best for us are not necessarily the things we choose. Our judgment is blinded by our desire for our belief, so we make a choice hoping it is our belief. Deep down we know that we are wrong ...we will always be wrong because our belief was not meant to be..........

[ladytoothfairy]

I love it!

I just made my first animation

[hailztotherawwwr]

I wish to make a piece of poetry to define the emotion of others, please subscribe to me because I might be making videos reading off poetry of mine.

[toocoolone1]

that's an awsome poem. Period.

[TheAmpersandMan]

Beautiful poetry read by beautiful women...search - Silkworms Ink

[BryanToomey]

It was simple. But that is what makes it good.

[Poemsapennyeach]

Weak.

[Bramzpeakz]

BramzPeakz

[godsonstoned]

true poetry in the making.

[fastfatty987]

What the hell was that?

[FerSureLissa]

i love poetry but this peice sucks very badly im srry but i agree.

[stoplookingatmexuan]

that was a beautiful animation. thanks for making my day!

[kijkopdewereld]

Beautifully animated and i love the poem!

[goldmetaman]

eating and sandwich XD

[dirtypants428]

Oh man, this is so deep. Wait.....no......it was just gas.

[gaysucks1]

LMAO

[marmas58ink]

(This got long but dammit I'm posting it!) "They watch the tops of our heads" at 1st blush seems a literalist's failure of imagination - but since that's surely not the full import, the point is... What? That our forebearers reckoned too much concerning the afterlife? That we have failed our fathers' vision, so only such absurdly slanted 'what ifs' remain? That once vital human spaces have indeed become so debleted, abandoned, so lamely literal?

[marmas58ink]

(PART 2) It's light verse, perhaps. (seems I've read more than one reviewer crit. BC as such.) or OTOH handles it's implications lightly/deftly.

And the ending, they fear we can see them too?! (Like parents to resume a few hrs' rounder life once the kids are 'put down'.) Or, eyes closed,

[marmas58ink]

(PART 3) they can finally enter our dreams, (an even older idea of the departed) rejoin us, involve us in their larger lives, ours having grown shallow in unseeing... our dreams (of older ways of living) the last field of a richer, fertile imagining?

"Tender is the Night". (Fitz's image of DD turning out the light.) There is a warmth at the close, a shared dark, a sense of joining.

[breeeegs]

when you read that much into a poem, you destroy what makes it beautiful in the first place

[marmas58ink]

@breeeegs I can definitely agree. Still sometimes I like to try interpret a poem the way you might an interesting dream. I don't think it comes down to reading TOO much into it though!

My pro. gtrist friend said reducing a song to a mere series of chords DOES often take away some of its magic. Like trying to see a poem as a series of chimes struck (creating harmonies, dissonances etc, creating thematic structure) I guess. It's fun, worthwhile... but more like a dream, it can never be so precise.

[Ben2242]

@marmas58ink Wow...I really don't understand what your point is here. You didn't really make one though so that's probably why.

Your verbiage is giving me a headache...

[insertsloganhere]

I think he's saying people believe you go to heaven when you die, and then he proceeds to describe some imagined implications of that in a clever way. I think it's pretty good, because of the "drugged perhaps, by the hum of a warm afternoon" line, and there's a veiled cynicism throughout that I share.

[st3phanie2002]

care to share why the cynicism?

[insertsloganhere]

There's a common reference in western culture to loved ones who have died "looking down on us", which taken literally, results in the strange imagery and unlikely scenarios described throughout. I didn't intend my interpretation as a condemnation of religious faith. Everyone has the right to believe in whatever they wish. I was only commenting on his description of the highly unlikely proposition that the dead retain their physical form in some way and sit up in the sky "looking down on us".

[NietzscheanMan]

Meh

[mado9111]

hii :)

plz see my freinds poem, i think u may like its the same style

watch?v=RNg8G9Qes1k

peace

[Hellboy667]

Maybe it is too deep for me, but I don't like the poem. The animation is kinda cool.

[bawdmawn]

Nothing is the only thing that's perfect.

[bawdmawn]

nothings perfect

[edgaram69]

I wonder, why this video doesn't have 5 complete stars? it's a good poem with a good animation... 5 stars

[kylemorne100]

I read some of his work and they are pretty amazing!

[poofbegone29]

Oh, wow...my favorite line: "the glass-bottomed boats of heaven." So beautiful!

[smartbluecat]

Wonderful!

[xlxDaGxlx]

bizzarro

[PromethianLight]

I love it!!!

[ebbsingen]

beautiful the animation works excellent with the poem and the voice!

[stennisl]

Hum of a warm afternoon... Awesome poem

[whsdancer123]

interesting O_o;; ((BECCA WAS HERE -go stiegal!!!-))

[Veganizemecapn]

Teh guy is a poet and that is great, but I still think I have written better. Not trying to offend anyone who loves his work or anything, but yeah.

[scart69net]

Veganizemecapn, I checked. You haven't. ;-) It ain't bad, it just ain't better.

[teainthesahara]

Yes, I agree, you are much better.

[markwhat44]

it was pretty dam decent of him to lend his voice to stephen hawkins.

[osamauremama]

hahahahhaa

[zozovii]

Subtle humour 0:15 they row their boat rowing in the wrong direction

[OracleX]

I love all his work!

[scripteur09]

Great video =D

[forestgumpaed]

human nature.

good and bad,

love and hate,

poor and rich,

friend and enemy,

sad and happy,

housed and homeless,

aalive and dead.

THATS LIFE im afraid.

[mySTEREOFiDELiC]

This is beautiful. Great animation.

[xxholdon]

i love this! great animation and the poem is very interesting

[MrRancher02]

Publish A Book! This is good stuff,you have talent.

If you want to do a book, contact gurdonboybooks@yahoo

We seek good book ideas, we finance, our staff can write it

if you don't have time too, we do all publishing related work

to have YOUR IDEA on the market selling in 4 weeks

[FleshTorturer]

I don't think Mr. Collins would appreciate that.

[reneforallitsworth]

i think that poster is referring to the reader doing a dedication; many authrs pau homage to deceased greats, sungers do the same ting with re-makes if ckassic songs, when done with skill and good taste everyone loves it. U think Mr Collins - and his heirs - might appreciate such a dedication.

[gwenfruity]

@FleshTorturer if i were mister collins, id be glad someone liked my poem so much that they went to all that work to show others the poem in a different way

[kalixfornia]

This is amazing

[randomxselena]

i have to memorize this poem, this helps

[GamekeeperX]

Weird, but so nice

[fractallaaake]

wird

[tranzitthawt]

really nice

[PyroIsPoetry]

weird...cool.

[zaraaaazar]

wow.. That was Great.. love how the animation works with it!~~:))

[ThinkingVisually]

That was cool.

[m4lvolio]

that's not true, maaan! the dead want braaaaainz

[PivotAvenger]

cool

i saw this in class today

[laceyissparkly]

hello i love you.

[jess16saint]

interesting.

[MusicalEutopia]

Nice poem. He sounds like Microsoft Sam.

[butterfish21]

this is good poem

[pu3rchaotic]

thats cool but not to be mean but r u EMO

[thisIsSteveC]

ah yes, pu3rchaotic, finally i found someone i can drive a nail through, you being one with no emotion and all. it'll be fun, it's sanitized and i'll even do the cleanup.

[DarkestItachi]

i thought this was gonna be a sinister poem wen i saw i.. now such luck ='(

[danmessias]

nicely animated....

[allyourevilbase]

creepy

[Woethepoeticmind]

interesting

[zancomo]

On Sunday, 12th October 2008, the Jury of the 4th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival decided. The ZEBRA Prize for the best Poetry Film went to Juan Delcán, USA for the film 'The Dead', based on the poem 'The Dead' by Billy Collins.

A project of the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin in cooperation with interfilm Berlin.

[shapeofabox]

i love this project ;)

[Runo2123]

This is great

[higgyhackford]

cool stuff.

[video7audio]

Words for a hippie funeral...not bad I suppose, if you're a hippy.

This would also word in a horror film...

Or as an introduction to a psychedelic rock song...

Or something a kid would recite to their grandparents to get on their nerves.

[johnjohnson68510]

Billy does better when he avoids philosophy. I like the animation, though. This one needs to be "beaten with a rubber hose" to get the meaning out in the open, where we can vote on it.

[statham8200]

ooooo do it do it do it do it

lol

[lambojivequeen]

do wat u nutter...

lmao.. mii chicken just fell over teehee!!!

[statham8200]

i do believe she did

lol

[lambojivequeen]

no hun grammer, is shit as in verb, u know it is bein shit rite now type fing!!! an yes i did, even i can write better dan dis!!

[lambojivequeen]

this peom is SHIT!!

[XcaptainXobliviousX]

THE shit. this poem is THE  shit, my friend. because, obviously, you didnt just insult a former poet laureate of the united states?

[MortySklar]

A masterpiece all around!

[hansfree007]

boss this laaa

[wiffybiffy]

nice film, is it based on a true story?

[jasonstheory]

Yes. I believe so.

[Poesiefilmchen]

watch this film at ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin! 9th to 12th October at Cinema Babylon:Mitte

[Poesiefilmchen]

hello

[PhiladelhiaWolf]

wow. That was really great.

[satnitcboy]

marmas, I'm taking your advice. Will buy one of BC's books today.

Billy Collins was a 2-term Poet Laureate of the US, and Poet Laureate of New York. I admire his fearlessness about being funny and charming - he's criticized for it by some. There is always a bit of surprise in the humor (the disarming element) and always truth.

[uberdansounds]

this is great! really great! Love the animation & voiceover.

[house25]

the voice is actually billy collins himself

[imao07]

Can yo uguys give me a poetry words a lovely one and funny ones because I want to give it to my girlfriend PLEASE SEND IT TO ME ^_^

[lambojivequeen]

i fink u shuld try 2 rite her 1 urself, i im she she like urs better, even if its shit, rather dan 1 a total stranger rote 4 u! after all dey dnt kno her or how beautiful she is, but u do!

[marmas58ink]

Billy Collins is probably more popular than he should be ... or at least judging by the # of Utube views (zoo you too, remember that one?). 675thousand+??!! For a poet? Surprising. ...not in a bad way ... now everybody go buy one of his books.

[castlemoat]

Perfect words. Perfect animation. Perfect narration.

[allthekentsmen]

Didn't realise stephen hawkins was asked to read this?

Lol.

Incredible poem tho.

[booge53]

hey i found that guy all u were looking for. he is just posting more of his work online on his blog. cant beleive i found him. his site is loveslaws(blogspot(com

[COPPERHEAD842]

...through the glass bottom boats of heaven, as they row themselves slowly through eternity..."

(great phrasing and imagery)

This is perfect and amazing. I love it!!

[agile1111]

This guy is great. Thanks.

[MahinaSinger]

i like it but by just saying the dead almost makes it scary...alot of people have died that i would want to be watching over me

if it was people that have died that i love then this is loevely :)

[Cloud1992abc]

das kapier ich nicht

[hamy515]

i enjoy how the poem uses modern everyday things like sandwiches and shoes whilst using the surreal content and interesting imagery as a sharp affective contrast.

[ThatShortGirl5]

if you listen very closely (you might need to wear headphones), you can hear the teeny tiny sound of the girl taking a puff of her cigarette.

[CrazyToya16]

i love this...

[MilesMuhldoon]

graceful and beautiful imagery...

[peteoet9]

sick . all of it! SILLY I LOVE YOU

[bipolarscizo]

I like the poem.

[prosaicwritings]

PS If you have a comment then send it on the website - thumbs up or down is boring!

[Nickthejedi1]

You are so right! I absolutely despise people who, instead of discussing (or fighting) their difference in views, just simply give you a thumbs up or down. I bet I'm going to get at least 2 thumbs down right now.

[MalmoSofia]

I got so inspired! Wonderfull!

[Lynar2324]

I liked it. =)

[JNeffLind]

If you like this poem (like I do, I love it) you should check out 'Across The Clouds' by JNeffLind. It's animated poetry in the same style as Billy Collins. Fun, unpretentious, but meaningful. I tried to post it as a video response here but for some reason they won't let me.

Best,

J

[Nickthejedi1]

I swear this man is a genious.

[Neotrific]

Beautiful. I must assume this was featured by Youtube??? It deserves its own glass case in the virtural display. Beautiful imagery. I imagine a new canvas on the walls of art shows. Poetry in motion.

[ShutlOrbit]

Billy Collins is called the most accessible poet of our time. I love his imagery. I really enjoy the interpretation depicted in this animation. Good work!

[silasiscool]

I really must say this is amazingly good and it deeply moves ppl

[jakvid]

The animation is okay.

[venusboys3]

It's better than 'ok'... in fact it's awfully darn good.

The movements are very purposeful... forces and weights 'feel' right.

The style is very light and airy as befits the poem.

[AkanMeister1]

cant u see the simpleness of animation so the poent would be more close to humanity?

[bhangrachick]

can sum1 PLZ help me..i dont understand it but duin it as as levels PLZ PLZ PLZ EXAPLIN!!

[hardstreetbambi]

hello bhangrachick, "the dead" analysed in a summary? "wait like parents for us to close our eyes" is them waiting for us to join them, when we die (close our eyes). the whole poem is very relaxed, doing ordinary things like "making a sandwhich" "putting on our shoes" "in a field or on a couch" these are all ordinary things, this is meant to make the reader/listener/interpreter feel more understanding and feeling for the aspects of the poem.

[hardstreetbambi]

that they are lifting their oars again at the end and waiting, is because they are waiting for us to die, so that they can "row themselves slowly through eternity" with us. this is what i have guessed, anyway!

[374Lon]

uhh! this is very very very... good!

[SarahsLittleIsland]

It's really beautifoul! I've written some poems myself

[jjhunter916]

Nice poem and animation.

The guy kind of sounds like he needs to escape his "white bread" life though.

I'm still waiting for the drug commercial

and all that pleasant scenery on the tv, that type of voice.

[arezentes]

Bravo. I am sending this out to friends and family. It's beautiful.

[avenger0507013]

i loved the illistrations..i write poetry and am getting kinda well known for it in my town..writing's how i speak basically. i love it.

[Enright9591]

Hey this is neat! I love it.

[taurusbrooklyn]

I loved it. This is great.

[accesssacramento]

I enjoyed it. Short and different. Going to check out the rest of your work now...

[axd3392]

nice linebreak: drugged perhaps/

by the hum of a warm afternoon

[juzme09]

great mophing.

[YOSOL]

shit, what a fucking asshole you are. He´s just giving an opinion, and one I agree with, a little. The voice is a little too dull and makes it sound uninteresting instead of giving that "dead" feeling to it.

you exaggerate too much, asshole.

[MisterLobster]

I'm with daywithering, it's supposed to be dull. I wouldn't want that read any other way.

Prefect poem, perfect reading, perfect animation.

Agree with you with the poem, but doesn´t the voice sound a little bit too... ummm... "computer-like"?

it´s perfect, I like it alot and the animation too, but the voice sounds like if it was taken off the computer... I don´t know,maybe it´s just me.<