“Tuesday, June 4, 1991” is a poem about a third of the way into Billy Collins’ 1995 poetry collection, The Art of Drowning. Billy Collins is a contemporary poet who is known for his connection to all the peoples of America (and more recently Europe), through quick wit, humor, and light and clever wordplay. He encourages all audiences, be they the poetry elite or the common man, to enjoy his poetry by keeping the meaning intense, but the words relatively simple. The Art of Drowning is split into three sections. The first deals largely with nature imagery and inspiration, the second deals with perception through time, and the third is about different arts. “Tuesday, June 4, 1991” is the very last poem of the first section, which makes it an ideal poem to bridge the gap. It does this well, combining nature and the perception thereof into one single idea.
“Tuesday, June 4, 1991” is a poem with its meaning deeply rooted in the title, but also hearkens back to the poem placed before it in the book, “Days.” The latter is about the days of a person’s life, each unique. “Each one is a gift”, and as they number in one’s life, so too do they increase in splendor and become ever more precious. They become more fragile, too, making “holding your breath” a necessity for tomorrow. Perhaps this is what inspired Collins to write “Tuesday, June 4, 1991”.
“Tuesday, June 4, 1991” is a fifteen stanza testament to being a part of those days that are so precious; of observing the wonders of life and of the world. It’s a tribute to time; day by day, every second. So, naturally, it begins with him getting out of bed. His wife is already gone to botany class, proof that this is no romantic poem, as the rest of the day is recorded without her. The next stanza I believe cements Billy Collins himself as this poem’s persona. He describes the joys of a breezy June morning, and himself sitting at a table drinking coffee, typing away. Themes begin emerging, such as insignificance in the face of life itself, and how being observant is important to enjoying life. It also speaks to how very critical recording life is, or it will all be forgotten.
Billy Collins keeps mentioning himself as a documenter of life. Near the beginning he “feels like a secretary to the morning whose only responsibility is to take down its bright, airy dictation…”. He then compares that to stenographers in courtrooms, Samuel Pepys (famous for keeping a detailed diary of London during its Reconstruction period), and an “amanuensis whose hands are two birds fluttering on the lettered keys, whose eyes see sunlight splashing through leaves, and the bright pink asterisks of honeysuckle.”
Each individual stanza is four lines long. Some are individual sentences, while others are continuations of sentences past. The lines are all relatively the same length and have a smooth feel to them. The poem flows from one line to the next, never with forced rhyme. In fact, there is almost no rhyme to be found—it only occurs in one or two spots—but rest assured the lack of rhyme detracts from the poem not at all.
-- Long Poem Assignment
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