Reviews

Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins

henryerickson's review

funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

5.0

bbshams's review

3.0

Billy Collins has a wonderful ability to highlight the magical and endearing nuances of things overlook daily. This collection, however, began to feel too mundane to me. Perhaps i read it too quickly, but i could only read so many poems about sitting in front of a window writing before my eyes start to glaze over. There are some quiet, powerful images in his poems that conjured smiles in me and made this collection worth the read, but it has not been my favorite of his

akmorgan's review against another edition

4.0

As this is my first book of poetry, I'm not sure how to review it. All I know is that Billy Collins makes me smile and delight in "ordinary" life.

shellkay's review

medium-paced

2.75

easyreader_05's review

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

anitaofplaybooktag's review

5.0

I didn't love every poem in this collection, but I did really enjoy three quarters of them and that exceeded my expectations by a whole lot.

I recommend Introduction to Poetry, Forgetfulness, Days, On Turning Ten, Marginalia , Dharma, Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause to Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles, and Insomnia.

I would so definitely read and buy more Billy Collins. I can believe I like poetry. When did this happen?

locke_reads's review

reflective fast-paced

2.0

ananthousflorist's review

4.0

I loved this anthology, but it gets repetitive towards the end. Individually, all of the poems are definitely worth 5 stars.

alexandra_avital's review

5.0

I disappointed that there weren’t more new poems in this collection but everything in it is absolutely lovely. His poems are accessible without being basic and beautiful without being pretentious. I think the only exception to that would be ‘Paradelle for Susan.’ Overall, just immensely satisfying to read. Why didn’t a teacher ever hand me Billy Collins in high school when I declared my hatred of poetry?

rwaringcrane's review

4.0

I think I'm in love. Billy Collins makes me smile, ponder, and wish I were a poet too.