Billy Collins’ book, The Art of Drowning, is a collection of poems published in 1995. It personifies Mr. Collins’ love of the mundane. To Billy Collins, the joy of a simple book is as beautiful as the sky, and the harmony of birds is like a gospel choir. He recounts in exquisite detail the wonders of everyday life, and the beauty that can be found in every moment. This book came out six years before Billy Collins became the U.S. Poet Laureate, and probably helped boost his career enough to make that possible. It is separated into four sections, each capturing a different unique insight into the workings of everyday life. The first seems to focus on how great minds are reminiscent of the nature that inspired them, the second is a testament to how age affects perception of the world, the third section is about cycles in life, and the final section seems to be devoted to art and music.
Billy Collins’ first section in The Art of Drowning is primarily about nature and the world, and how it has influenced greatness in mankind. For instance in his poem, appropriately titled, “Influence,” Billy shows us a comparison between birds and one Robert Penn Warren:
All these years and I never realized
why I found the mourning dove so interesting
until you pointed out
that morning we stood by the icy window
its resemblance to Robert Penn Warren—
the secretive eyes, soft royal neck,
and the mild, unruffled demeanor. (1-7)
Robert Penn Warren is the only person to have ever won the Pulitzer Prize for both poetry and for the fiction novel, All the King’s Men. He is, needless to say, a very important literary figure in the past, and quite possibly had a huge impact on Billy Collins, if this poetic testimony says anything about it:
But for days afterward, whenever I saw the doves
milling around in the snow,
their legs thin as pencil leads,
I found myself thinking of All the King’s Men,
picturing the cover of the paperback
I used to carry around in my jacket pocket. (27-32)
As if to drive the point home that nature inspires greatness, Billy references a second Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (also known for her use of nature imagery), Marianne Moore:
I even began to wonder, as the sun nudged
the shadows of the bare trees across the snow,
whether the titmouse, fluttering about
in its own tiny sphere of excitement,
did not remind me somewhat of Marianne Moore. (33-37)
Billy’s love of nature and his confidence in its ability as a muse make for a relaxing, yet empowering, read.
The second section of The Art of Drowning deals with aging and reflection on youth. In “On Turning Ten,” Collins portrays that even at this early age, life used to be better:
This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number. (24-27)
He also reflects on the innocence of youth, saying:
It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I would shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed. (28-32)
Collins reinforces this point in the poem, “Fiftieth Birthday Eve,” by admitting that he has trouble not focusing on his age, saying:
The figure alone is enough to keep me awake,
……………………………………………….
I want to daydream here in the dark, listening
to the trees behind the house reciting their poems,
……………………………………………….
But I keep picturing the number, round and daunting. (1, 6-7,12)
Then later in the same poem, he compares turning fifty to the horrors of turning ten:
And this day, whose first light is gilding the windows,
has become another one of the sorrowful mysteries,
following the agony in the garden of childhood
and proceeding the crucifixion,
the letter X removed from the word and nailed to a cross (28-32).
Yet for all his talk about aging and the sorrow behind it, Billy Collins utilizes his own special brand of irony to show that, while sad, life and aging are wonderful, and you should get as much out of them as you can. He does this in the poem of the books namesake, “The Art of Drowning.” He does this by questioning one’s life flashing before one’s eyes in a near death experience:
Wouldn’t any form be better than this sudden flash?
Your whole existence going off in your face
in an eyebrow-singeing explosion of biography—
nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned. (13-16)
This section is a fun read for anybody stuck thinking on the past, and will make you want to reflect on the best parts of your life.
The next section is a brilliantly detailed account of cycles as Mr. Collins takes us on a ride through his pondering of beginnings, endings, and most importantly what we as people choose to think about them. He uses mornings not only to ascribe them splendor, as in his poem “Center,” but also as a metaphor for the beginnings of one’s life, comparing it to a high school graduation in the poem, “Monday Morning.” Collins also pays reverence to the beginning of dreaming in his poem, “The First Dream,” which is a nice blend of beginnings and human contemplation:
Then again the first dream might have come
to a woman, though she would behave,
I suppose, much the same way,
moving off by herself to be alone near water,
except that the curve of her young shoulders
and the tilt of her downcast head
would make her appear to be terribly alone,
and if you were to notice this,
you might have gone down as the first person
to ever fall in love with the sadness of another. (17-26)
He goes on with his accounts of human thought in his poems, “Philosophy,” and “Romanticism,” where he details changes in his own thinking as his life has progressed. And in everything that progresses, there is an ending to which he dedicates “While Eating a Pear” and “The End of the World.” The latter of these expresses that every ending is significant, saying:
Was it once enough for him to sense the smaller endings?
To know from the way someone combs her hair
one morning that the end of love is near;
to tell by the way chords for home
that the end of the song is fast approaching;
or to realize by the tone of afternoon light
that the end of the very day is at hand,
my brethren, and that the summer trees and clouds
will never be blown quite the same way again. (31-39)
He ends the poem by explaining that he will prophesy the end of the day and the beginning of the night. Assuming, then, that night again leads into day, a clear cycle can be established, which is followed up by the next and last poem in the section, “Design.” This last poem follows suit with such phrasing as, “I pour a coating of salt on the table/ and make a circle in it with my finger./ This is the cycle of life” (1-3).
The fourth and final segment of The Art of Drowning is about the magnificence to be found in mediums of art. A large amount of Billy Collins’ poetry is about the written word, such as “Tuesday, June 4, 1991” in which he talks about himself as a secretary to life and nature. This section, however, seems to be devoted to all sorts of art, such as music in “The Invention of the Saxophone,” and painting in “Medium.” Billy writes in his poem, “Piano Lessons”:
Even when I am not playing, I think about the piano.
It is the largest, heaviest,
and most beautiful object in this house.
I pause in the doorway just to take it all in.
And late at night I picture it downstairs,
this hallucination standing on three legs,
this curious beast with its enormous moonlit smile. (47-53)
This demonstrates his love for music, but the rest of the poem shows his knowledge of the subject as well, when he says things such as:
the scale is the mother of the chords.
……………………………………………
After all,
just the right chord can bring you to tears,
but no one listens to the scales,
no one listens to their mother. (18, 24-27)
Billy Collins’, The Art of Drowning, is the perfect read for someone who enjoys humor, wit, and irony, along with nature, philosophy, and art. Anyone who takes pleasure in poetry streaming out of a book like music will love this book. Filled with poems that are intellectually challenging but still not hard to comprehend, this book is a masterpiece of lyrical observation of the workings of the world.
Works Cited
Collins, Billy. The Art of Drowning. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1995. Print.
"Marianne Moore." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 05 Mar. 2011. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/96>.
"Robert Penn Warren." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Penn_Warren>.
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