My Mini Anthology

1. My Mini Anthology Billy Collins By Raven Woods Per. 5 English 9 5//09Table of Contents

2. Table of Contents • Preface of Billy Collins • Preface Con’t • The History Teacher • SHE WAS JUST SEVENTEEN • Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House

3. Preface of Billy Collins • His real name is William Collins • Born on March 22,1941 in New York City. He is now 68 years old. • At home Collins has been recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and selected as New York City’s greatest poet (2005). • He is just an poet but just books full of his poetry. His poetry was featured in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The American Scholar.

4. He wrote about 8 collections of his poetry. The titles are: Questions About Angels;The Art of Drowning;Picnic,lightning;Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes; Sailing alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems;Nine Horses; and The Trouble With Poetry And Other Poems. He was featured on NPR’s Prairie Home Companion and Fresh Air.He was recently named the official US Poet Laureate, after named as April 2000 featured poet in Poetry Magazine. Questions about Angels won Collins the 1990 National Poetry Series competition. He also received a nearly unprecedented six-figure deal form Random House for his next three books. He is a professor of English in the beginning of 1971 and he still performs poetry readings. He also says that poetry is death. He claims that he is a thief that steels from other poets poems. He mentions this in one of his books: The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems. For several year he has conducted a summer poetry workshops in Ireland at a University. Preface Con’t

5. Preface Con’t 269 • Has been called “ the most popular poet in America”. His father was a electrician, and his mother was nurse. Both of his parents was forty when he was born. He grow up in Jackson Heights. He was really well know in New York. He is still writing poetry today even though he is 68 years old.

6. Trying to protect his students' innocencehe told them the Ice Age was really justthe Chilly Age, a period of a million yearswhen everyone had to wear sweaters.And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,named after the long driveways of the time.The Spanish Inquisition was nothing morethan an outbreak of questions such as"How far is it from here to Madrid?""What do you call the matador's hat?" The War of the Roses took place in a garden,and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan.The children would leave his classroomfor the playground to torment the weakand the smart,mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,while he gathered up his notes and walked homepast flower beds and white picket fences,wondering if they would believe that soldiersin the Boer War told long, rambling storiesdesigned to make the enemy nod off. The History Teacher http://teachertrenches.blogspot.com/2008/07/billy-collins-history-teacher-catcher.html

7. SHE WAS JUST SEVENTEEN • Mid-winter evening,alone at a sushi bar—just me and this eel. • Awake in the dark—so that is how rain soundson a magnolia. • http://www.modernhaiku.org/mhbooks/collinsSheWasJustSeventeen2006.html

8. The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.He is barking the same high, rhythmic barkthat he barks every time they leave the house.They must switch him on on their way out.  The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.I close all the windows in the houseand put on a Beethoven symphony full blastbut I can still hear him muffled under the music,barking, barking, barking,  and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,his head raised confidently as if Beethovenhad included a part for barking dog.  When the record finally ends he is still barking,sitting there in the oboe section barking,his eyes fixed on the conductor who isentreating him with his baton  while the other musicians listen in respectfulsilence to the famous barking dog solo,that endless coda that first establishedBeethoven as an innovative genius. Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House http://project1.caryacademy.org/echoes/03-04/billy_collins/inspiredpoemscollins.htm