16 pages • 32 minutes read
Billy CollinsSome Days
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The Breather” by Billy Collins (2008)
This poem explores the idea that relationships with other people are only mirrors of relationship to selves. Like “Some Days,” this poem also utilizes the everyday imagery (in this poem, a telephone) as a vehicle to explore a much deeper point of view regarding the self and, by extension, others.
“Axe Handles” by Gary Snyder (1983)
Snyder is part of the Beat movement to which Collins attributes some of his poetic influence. This poem comments on the influence of past figures on the present and the continuity of future generations. As the speaker and his son utilize an old axe handle to make a new one, the speaker reflects on the influences that have shaped him and how he is affecting his son and future generations.
“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1816)
During an interview at the Aspen Idea Festival in 2007, Collins cited Samuel Taylor Coleridge as the poet who has most influenced his own work. “Kubla Khan” is one of Coleridge’s most famous and most oft-discussed poems. It’s a snippet that came from a larger dream state—possibly induced by Coleridge’s ingestion of laudanum—a drink made from alcohol and opium that was once used as a narcotic painkiller.
Further Literary Resources
Picnic, Lightening by Billy Collins (1998)
In this book of poems, Collins explores a broad range of subject matters. He employs stark imagery to bring unique perspectives to everyday topics and experiences.
Emory University presents an interactive interview with Billy Collins. In this interview, Collins discusses his experiences and ideas and their influence on his poetry. This interview is heavily focused on Collins’s philosophies regarding the craft of poetry writing as well as his personal creative processes.
"An Evening with Billy Collins" (2013)
Presented by the University of California Television, this video is a recording of the entire Point Loma Writer’s Symposium by the Sea. This video is split as Collins reads multiple poems and gives an interview on a range of different topics, including his experience as the Poet Laureate of the United States as well as his writing process and practices.
Listen to Poem
Billy Collins gives voice to “Some Days” in conjunction with animation by Julian Grey. This is an excerpt from Collins’s TED Talk in which he reads two additional poems in conjunction with animation. During this presentation, Collins offers some background and explains some of his philosophies on writing between each poem.
Related Titles
By Billy Collins
