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Sweet Talk -- Billy Collins

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Uploaded by on Jan 29, 2007

produced by K'Nected Media http://knectedmedia.com

more on my blog @ http://utopiaorbust.wordpress.com

Category:

Comedy

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License:

Standard YouTube License

  • likes, 33 dislikes

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Uploader Comments (Acumensch)

  • Who said poetry had to rhyme?

    And so he´s ä pervert? Hardly.

  • auden had chops

    bukowski was scatalogical

    joyce wrote verse that was prodigal

    billy tho made the rubber chicken circuit

    reading from what induces:a lurk

    a fall, a slip, a dip---verse that sags and then proceeds to drip

  • Billy's "Sonnet": this is hilarious.

    All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,

    and after this one just a dozen

    to launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas,

    then only ten more left like rows of beans.

    How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan

    and insist the iambic bongos must be played

    and rhymes positioned at the ends of lines,

    one for every station of the cross.

  • ....(continued)

    But hang on here wile we make the turn

    into the final six where all will be resolved,

    where longing and heartache will find an end,

    where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,

    take off those crazy medieval tights,

    blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.

  • if this guys a poetic genius then i must be the czar of Russia. My 8 year sister can make better stuff than this. GAWD* I mean me being a girl and all if someguy told me this i'd barf on his face.

  • Ok. then post your eight-year old sister's stuff here. I want to see it.

    (Of course I know sophia means wisdom; my point was to say you are anything but wise.)

    The thing about Collins is that he's not a poet's poet. But you still have to know about other poetry and art to get his little jokes. You also have to understand his rejection of formal, pre-modern poetry.

Top Comments

  • He needs a poetry class? Dude he was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001-2003.

    You are a dipshit.

  • genius absolute genius

see all

All Comments (102)

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  • @8sophia8 I can assure you , you are NOT the Czar of Russia, or a poetic genius or even an astute critic. I am glad to hear someone in your family can appreciate poetry but I doubt your 8 y.o. sister would want to try to out-do Mr Collins even if she could, for if she could, she would see him as a peer whose talent should be as appreciated as her own. If "someguy" ever tries to tell you anything poetic in some misguided attempt to impress you, I will personally attempt to steer him elewhere.

  • @octopuscollective I just wish I'd written it!!!!!

  • Go type GIFT before youtube.com and get your prize!

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

  • to my mind, this is the perfect poem

  • I just wish that had been written for me. 

  • @Griesmayer you might want to trade in your poetry rule book for the latest revision.

  • @damienmetalwind

    You're right, he's a good poet. But saying justifying with that with his position as Poet Laureate certainly doesn't speak an iota to his talent, only to the fact that he knows people in Washington.

  • i love hopper... this is the best poem ever.

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