The apple that astonished Paris / Billy Collins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Collins, Billy

Language:

English

Physical Description:

x, 61 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press, 1988.

Summary:

One of the most readable and accessible poets to appear in a long time, Billy Collins strikes at the deepest concerns of the human heart and mind. Frequently -- as in such masterful poems as "Plight of the Troubador," "Child Development," "Embrace," "The Past," and "My Number" -- Collins sets up a premise, based on a comically unusual interpretation of an everyday situation, and then proceeds to unwind the premise in ways that are as delightful as they are disturbing. His metaphysical wit and cosmic puzzlement, always expressed in a clean, direct, unpretentious idiom, will touch every reader who is fascinated by the play of a truly original imagination and a disarming way of seeing the world.

Contents:

I. Away

Vanishing Point 3

Walking Across the Atlantic 5

The Blue 6

Schoolsville 7

Driving with Animals 9

Strange Lands 11

Tuscany 12

Tourist: Dromahair, Co. Sligo 13

Flying to a Funeral 15

Etymology 16

Hunger 17

Hart Crane 18

Winter Syntax 19

Plight of the Troubadour 21

The Frankenstein Poet 22

Lost 23

The Past 25

Fur 26

Flames 27

II. Home

On Closing Anna Karenina 33

Indoors 34

Death 35

Remembering Dreams 36

Earthling 37

Child Development 38

Putting Down the Cat 40

The Lesson 41

Lowell, Mass 42

Programs 44

The Morning After My Death 45

Personal History 46

Bar Time 48

Insomnia 49

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House 50

Cancer 51

Embrace 52

The Rival Poet 53

My Number 54

Poem 55

Hopeless but Not Serious 56

Advice to Writers 57

Introduction to Poetry 58

Desire 59

The Brooklyn Museum of Art 60.

ISBN:

1557280231

155728024X

OCLC:

16646551