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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This collection is a perfect introduction into Collin's work. It has a great selection of works gathered together as sort of a "greatest hits" sampler book. Maybe it betrays my age to say this, but maybe not... anyway, one of my favorite's is the poem "To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl. I will say that just as in buying a "greatest hits" album, you will only get a few new poems previously unpublished, SO if you already have read and/or own most of his other work, I don't know if you would need to add this one to your already crowded poetry shelf. On the other hand, if you are a "completist" when you have a favorite author, then you will just have to have it anyway, which is what I will do (and besides, the cover art is fantastic as well). Happy Poetry Month Goodreaders
English Review Below.
أول قراءة للشاعر ده وأعتقد أنه من الشعراء المشهورين ولكن بحكم قلة قراءتي للشعر فلم أكن قد سمعت عنه حتى، أعتقد أن كمان المجموعات اللي زي دي بتكون مناسبة جدا للأشخاص اللي هيقروا أشعاره لأول مرة أو المبتدئين في الشعر، لأنها مجموعة بتجمع مجموعة قصائد له من دواوين مختلفة بالإضافة إلى بعض القصائد الجديدة، لكن كلها كانت جديدة عليّ.
بيجمع أسلوبه بين الكوميديا السوداوية والمشاعر الفياضة بأسلوب سهل نوعا ما، ورغم أن مكنتش كل قصيدة مبهرة، إلا أني لقيت الكثير من التشبيهات الجميلة والأفكار العميقة في كتاباته. مش شعر تقليدي وبيتنقل بين مواضيع زي الطبيعة والوحدة وعملية الكتابة والشعر والعلاقات والعزلة وغيرها. عجبتني التجربة الأولى دي ليه.
This is my first time reading for Billy Collins, and I think curated collections like this one are most suitable for first- time readers. It has some selected poems from previous collections of his, in addition to new poems, they were all new to me regardless.
He merges between dark humour and wholesomeness in an accessible way, and even though they weren't all mind-blowing, I found a lot of favourite imagery and food for thought in his poems. It's not your typical poetry, and I like that, I don't need me poetry to rhyme all the time to appreciate it, and for someone who doesn't read a lot of poetry, this was a good surprise which I enjoyed. He talks about nature, loneliness, writing process, poetry, relationships, solitude musings and others.
أول قراءة للشاعر ده وأعتقد أنه من الشعراء المشهورين ولكن بحكم قلة قراءتي للشعر فلم أكن قد سمعت عنه حتى، أعتقد أن كمان المجموعات اللي زي دي بتكون مناسبة جدا للأشخاص اللي هيقروا أشعاره لأول مرة أو المبتدئين في الشعر، لأنها مجموعة بتجمع مجموعة قصائد له من دواوين مختلفة بالإضافة إلى بعض القصائد الجديدة، لكن كلها كانت جديدة عليّ.
بيجمع أسلوبه بين الكوميديا السوداوية والمشاعر الفياضة بأسلوب سهل نوعا ما، ورغم أن مكنتش كل قصيدة مبهرة، إلا أني لقيت الكثير من التشبيهات الجميلة والأفكار العميقة في كتاباته. مش شعر تقليدي وبيتنقل بين مواضيع زي الطبيعة والوحدة وعملية الكتابة والشعر والعلاقات والعزلة وغيرها. عجبتني التجربة الأولى دي ليه.
This is my first time reading for Billy Collins, and I think curated collections like this one are most suitable for first- time readers. It has some selected poems from previous collections of his, in addition to new poems, they were all new to me regardless.
He merges between dark humour and wholesomeness in an accessible way, and even though they weren't all mind-blowing, I found a lot of favourite imagery and food for thought in his poems. It's not your typical poetry, and I like that, I don't need me poetry to rhyme all the time to appreciate it, and for someone who doesn't read a lot of poetry, this was a good surprise which I enjoyed. He talks about nature, loneliness, writing process, poetry, relationships, solitude musings and others.
Not only a collection of new poems, but an anthology of some of the old gems too!
On average, there were a lot of poems I liked, but very few I loved. Billy Collins' Whale Day and Other Poems were more to my taste than this one. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3626686029?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
Thank you Random House and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review. (Review to come closer to release date)
Billy Collins’s poems have a distinct tone; an awareness of the world, and a profound focus on the physicality and spirituality of objects and creatures. He explores the story of a missing chess piece that gets replaced by a salt shaker, an imaginary mouse who sets a house on fire, and Collins’s heart is “always propped up / in a field on its tripod, / ready for the next arrow.”
Collins’s view of the world feels tender, almost childlike. He’s full of wonder, approaching everything as though it is new and must be attentively described. But he communicates this view through the coherent language of an adult, which creates this effect...it’s one of the greatest contradictions I can think of, and I can think of a lot. I love contradictions.
Some of my favorite bits, which I think are good examples of what I’m trying to say:
Such deep silence on those nights—
just the sound of my typing
and a few stars singing a song their mother
sang when they were mere babies in the sky.
Every morning, a noisy bird
would flutter down between the buildings,
perch on a thin branch and yell at me
in French bird-talk...
...what bridges I would lean on
to watch the broad river undulating
like a long-playing record under the needle of my eye.
Collins seems, to me, to be an incredibly receptive and wise person, the kind of person who notices things, and the kind of person I’d think to ask for advice if I had a big life problem and didn’t know what to do about it. He’d say something weird but insightful, like that the best kind of love is “without recompense, without gifts, / or unkind words, without suspicion, / or silence on the telephone.” (From the poem that gave the collection its title, Aimless Love).
Collins’s view of the world feels tender, almost childlike. He’s full of wonder, approaching everything as though it is new and must be attentively described. But he communicates this view through the coherent language of an adult, which creates this effect...it’s one of the greatest contradictions I can think of, and I can think of a lot. I love contradictions.
Some of my favorite bits, which I think are good examples of what I’m trying to say:
Such deep silence on those nights—
just the sound of my typing
and a few stars singing a song their mother
sang when they were mere babies in the sky.
Every morning, a noisy bird
would flutter down between the buildings,
perch on a thin branch and yell at me
in French bird-talk...
...what bridges I would lean on
to watch the broad river undulating
like a long-playing record under the needle of my eye.
Collins seems, to me, to be an incredibly receptive and wise person, the kind of person who notices things, and the kind of person I’d think to ask for advice if I had a big life problem and didn’t know what to do about it. He’d say something weird but insightful, like that the best kind of love is “without recompense, without gifts, / or unkind words, without suspicion, / or silence on the telephone.” (From the poem that gave the collection its title, Aimless Love).
Another decent collection of new poems, though I found myself just kind of passing through more of them than other earlier works of his. Some redeeming ones and his more comedic poems made me half chuckle to myself. Only three more chapbooks and I’ll have read his entire published works.
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A