mcipher's review against another edition
4.0
I loved some of the poems, some I just loved a few lines, and a couple I didn’t really like. But in the whole, this was a great book of poetry. My favorites are the ones that have a sly wit to them but also capture the mundane perfectly. I like many of the lists, but sometimes they take away from the rest of the poem. Standouts for me were Piano Lessons, Pinup, Man in Space, Reading in a Hammock, Osso Bucco, and Water Table.
lalodragon's review against another edition
3.0
This is definitely better Billy than his newer books. I've got seven poems marked to revisit. Others had good ending images. The same problems as the other books pop up-- He'd love to tell you all about his bath-- but are better disguised, surrounded by better images.
jeremiah_scanlan's review against another edition
Some real gems, mostly flat for me (3/5)
writersrelief's review against another edition
5.0
Distinguished Professor and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins has collected some of his best work in his poetry collection THE ART OF DROWNING.
From the opening piece, “Dear Reader,” Collins welcomes you to join him in experiencing the fleetingness of humanity and the short yet deep connection he imagines making with his readers. He expresses the beauty found in life through snapshots of brief yet meaningful moments that have captured his attention. With ideas ranging from the warmth a good meal provides in “Osso Buco” to the cold, dry contemplation of one’s death in the title poem “The Art of Drowning,” Collins manages to use his diction and matter-of-fact tone to paint a wide variety of images into the mind’s eye of his reader.
With seemingly no particular order to the work, Collins’ poems provide windows through which a reader may catch brief glimpses into a life of comfort, curiosity and quiet contemplation. Each work is exactly as long as it needs to be (none being more than two pages in length.) Some star pieces from this collection are “The Invention of the Saxophone,” “The Best Cigarette” and, of course, “The Art of Drowning.”
From the opening piece, “Dear Reader,” Collins welcomes you to join him in experiencing the fleetingness of humanity and the short yet deep connection he imagines making with his readers. He expresses the beauty found in life through snapshots of brief yet meaningful moments that have captured his attention. With ideas ranging from the warmth a good meal provides in “Osso Buco” to the cold, dry contemplation of one’s death in the title poem “The Art of Drowning,” Collins manages to use his diction and matter-of-fact tone to paint a wide variety of images into the mind’s eye of his reader.
With seemingly no particular order to the work, Collins’ poems provide windows through which a reader may catch brief glimpses into a life of comfort, curiosity and quiet contemplation. Each work is exactly as long as it needs to be (none being more than two pages in length.) Some star pieces from this collection are “The Invention of the Saxophone,” “The Best Cigarette” and, of course, “The Art of Drowning.”
kfan's review against another edition
Really wanted to like this--I love the way he structures his poems, the rhythms of the lines. They have this easy lilt to them that's just about perfect. But I couldn't get into the actual content of the poems! I kept waiting for an ending, a line, a stanza that would come at my unexpectedly, knock me on my ear, but it never happened. I wanted to be surprised, I wanted to suddenly learn that the subject matter wasn't really the subject matter, but that was not the case here. For me the poems were almost pat, and I guess almost too light, in both senses of the word. I want poetry that looks at darkness and still finds hope, but here it was like we were pretending the darkness doesn't even exist.
(Looking forward to re-reading this in 10 years and discovering how totally wrong I was about this book.)
(Looking forward to re-reading this in 10 years and discovering how totally wrong I was about this book.)
joannemerriam's review against another edition
4.0
Billy Collins has visited my city a number of times in the past two years, including giving a two-day writing workshop which I was fortunate to attend, as well as several readings. I enjoy his poetry most read aloud and in person, where his charismatic reality distortion field is in full effect and I as an audience member forget that I don't like easy poetry with easy conclusions provided pre-packaged for me, so that in the end I must grudgingly admit that I quite enjoy his work despite all my theories about what poetry should be.
If you like his poetry you'll certainly like this collection, which is, I think, quite representative of his work and has the advantage for me of containing my favourite of his poems, "Canada" (which readers can preview at The Poetry Foundation's website, where it is reproduced) about summers in Canada in his boyhood, which sound pretty similar to my own summers in Canada as a child. I think what Billy Collins does best is remind us of things we already know.
If you like his poetry you'll certainly like this collection, which is, I think, quite representative of his work and has the advantage for me of containing my favourite of his poems, "Canada" (which readers can preview at The Poetry Foundation's website, where it is reproduced) about summers in Canada in his boyhood, which sound pretty similar to my own summers in Canada as a child. I think what Billy Collins does best is remind us of things we already know.