About the Author | Reading | Evaluating in Context | Experiencing | Interpreting


Billy Collins: Evaluating in Context

These writing prompts are followed by text boxes for your input. If you are working online and your instructor has given you the go-ahead, you can e-mail your work to him or her by clicking the "E-mail Your Answers" button. You can also e-mail a copy to yourself as a record of your work. If you are working offline, you will have to copy your answers (CTRL-C on most systems) and paste them (CTRL-V) into a text document to retain a record of your work.

  1. Read this interview. Collins mentioned that he likes to orient his readers with basic information such as "where we are" and "when we are." Do the poems in the text ("The History Teacher," "Jack," "Going Out for Cigarettes," "My Life," and "The Names") offer these information?

  2. Also from the same interview, Collins mentioned his fascination with "how a poem gets from one place to another" instead of what a poem means. Were there lines and aspects of his poems that show this fascination for poetry's movement and composition?


Send your answers to your instructor by filling out the form below. (Required fields are marked with an *.)

Your Name*:
Your E-mail*:
Your ID #:
Book:
Course number:
Instructor's Name*:
Instructor's E-mail*: