Preview

Key Themes In Billy Collins Schoolsville

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
530 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Key Themes In Billy Collins Schoolsville
A Lifetime’s Theme Laughter, let downs, memories, and regrets are all aspects of life itself. Explaining these aspects is the hardest part. When is laughter present? When are let downs expected? Where can memories lead? How do these all affect someone in the long run? The poem “Schoolsville” does a great job of representing life itself. It points towards life in general and explains the comical, serious and memorable, then poignant parts of life. Laughter is something that pleases the mind. Throughout our entire lives, we search for things that make us feel, even for the slightest amount of time, happy. Billy Collins writes, “Chalk dust flurrying down in winter, / nights dark as a blackboard” (Page 535). He is referring to happy times as a teenager. Being more than happy when the snow comes and school is out. Having nothing but time to be out of the house at all times of the night. Through conscious decisions, we forget about life. Sometimes even forgetting about the future. …show more content…
Though there are good memories, most memories will fall under a more serious category. Life gets hard with the loss of people that would stay forever. Sometimes this leads to a fall down; just to find out only one person has the ability to pick me back up. “I forgot all their last names first and their/ first names last in alphabetical order” (535). This quote reminds me of loss in life. The loss of family and of close friends to things that are unchangeable. The things that do not really mean anything are most memorable. While saying this, do not take special memories for granted. Every person has a meaning and no matter where life leads, those special or tragic memories will be stored for later

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Madeson Monologue

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Now after hearing about all these things surely you do remember that one special person that was in your life for either a short or maybe even a vast amount of time. You’ll always remember how they felt or even how they smelled and especially their appearance and personality. That person will forever be marked on you. Mine just so happened to be my mother. She will always be the person I never forget and will always be here in my heart whether I barely knew her. Susan Elizabeth Silva is my…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laughter is a therapeutic form. In the novel One flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey laughter represents freedom and an escape from nurse Ratched's restrictions.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human beings are almost always positive about knowing where they are in their life. But, they may never exactly know for certain where they maybe going or what their life will lead to. Billy Collins, the author of numerous poems including Introduction to Poetry and Schoolsville shows the aspects of this theory throughout his works. Collins provides enough details and description to let the reader know where they are when reading his poems, but not necessarily always where he is going with them. While most poets hide information or the fine points from us, Billy Collins does not. Instead, he indulges the reader with his clear topics, literary devices and precise imagery throughout the poems.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Billy Collins Essay

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages

    There are many famous poets out there but “the most popular poet in America” by Bruce Weber in the New York Times, states that Billy Collins carries that position. Collins is famous for conversational, witty poems that welcome readers with humor but often slip into quirky, tender or profound observation on the everyday, reading and writing, and poetry itself. He has such a wonderful way of writing his poetry to appeal to any audience and that will make you chuckle to yourself. He is a very creative and enthusiastic writer and writes on a very broad spectrum of subjects. He has a way of making every day common things into a hysterical form of comedic writing He hints…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sarah states that laughter is beneficial to health because it relieves stress and helps one socially. Information from another article Laughter is the Best Medicine concurs with what is being said. " Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. ....Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert" (Smith, Segal). She gives physical and mental effects of laughter such as decreased risk of heart attack, increase pain tolerance, increased intelligence, production of antibodies and protective cells that fight off disease and infections. Smith and Segal created charts, shown in fig 1, with lists that include benefits of laughter that Sarah mentions and more. In the article The Health Benefits of Laughter similar benefits are also mentioned: "research shows that when you laugh, there is an increase in oxygen-rich blood flow in your body, possibly due to the release of endorphins, which create a chemical rush that counters negative feelings and stress"(…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We tend to remember those things that we had but realize that we have our normal day to day lives to live and can never fully be able to recover that particular way of life. As Twain wrote, “I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river!” (438). Through this he says how we may have once saw the beauty and fun in life through which we actually see in our day to day lives but given time everything is routine and more ordinary to us. Twain also said, “I still kept in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steam boating was new to me” (438-439). We should rather like a child enjoy those things that we had with a passion and to never let them go. When loved ones die do we just forget about them and never remember, or do we move on and remember those things that made us happy and too never forget those memories in order to move on and hope that once again we can feel again that joy. Remember the times when we once used our imagination in such a way where we bask our very minds with joy and…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also everyone needs something to strive for, a goal, people need the feeling that they are constantly improving themselves or other people around them in order to truly be happy. As the author states in the informative writing “when you make others laugh dopamine and serotonin are released in the brain” causing you to feel good and ergo be happy; the same thing happens when someone make you laugh or smile the brain releases the dopamine and serotonin and which makes you…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Have I made you laugh yet ladies and gentlemen? Smile? Made you forget about the dread of up and coming assignments or exams? Because thatâs what Iâm trying to do. The whole point of this speech is to inform you that we all need laughter in our lives. Even as far back as Aristotle, who described laughter as a bodily exercise precious to health, organisations have viewed laughter as a commodity that can help…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Using the busy agendas and also the constant have to perform in each and every sphere of existence, it is not confusing why we do not find simple times of pure laughter. When you cannot run from the mundane existence, you skill is induce some smiles inside your daily existence. In the end, people need to locate happiness to maneuver on, and the skill of poking fun at absurd cartoons and comics is one thing that anybody can learn. Yes, if you're able to find the correct assets, finding good reasons to laugh could be easy. You will find many artists who've devoted time and fervour towards making others smile. Within this special publish, we'll find why laughing and finding happiness is not hard and just how you are able to take full advantage of some silly things in existence, most of which are masterpieces of fantastic…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Philosophy

    • 994 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Laughter is important for both human emotional and mental health and it can play a helpful and healing role in parenting and family life. Laughing is one of the healthiest things one can do when confronted with the major stresses and emotional pains in life. The human capacity to laugh is significant and to understand our laughter is to go a long way toward understanding our humanity. Laughter has not always received the positive coloring it regularly enjoys in today's free societies. Laughter is a malicious response to the ignorance of others, and a principled individual must avoid such a hateful response to the faults of others(Grunberg, 2011).…

    • 994 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laughter is an abstract idea that brings happiness to everyone. When you are having a bad day, a simple joke can brighten it a little. It is crucial to laugh every day because it makes you smile and turn your whole day into a great one.…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laughter helps your soul. I love having a sense of humor. My gift of having a great sense humor has got me through a lot of pain, and heartache throughout my life. I’ve learned that it’s good sometimes to laugh at your pain or maybe situations you have been in instead of just being worried, stressed, and embarrassed. Just find humor and look at it as a “Live and Learn” situation. But I love making my friends and family laugh. Because it also makes me happy and it brings joy to my life to make other people laugh and to see them happy.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Response to Schoolsville

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Although this poem had no personal effect on me, it caught my imagination through the imagery. The delusion of the teacher's town, Schoolsville, filled with all of their old students, is made almost real by the descriptions of the population. "The boy who always had his hand up" I swear was in my English class last year, and I have always been jealous of "the A's." You would find me in the circle of creative writing students, sitting near whoever plays the lute, pulling at the grass and conversing about that new Sylvia Plath poem I ran across the other night in my grandpa's old college notes.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Power of Laughter

    • 2176 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Studies and researches show that laughter is a very effective reliever to stress, conflict, and pain. The ability to laugh easily and frequently is such a great and extreme way for developing your social relationships and interactions with the people around you. It is also a tremendous source of strength in facing and surmounting problems. And best of all, it is an effective way of supporting both physical and emotional health stability.…

    • 2176 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Central Idea: What do laughter do? Laughter help trigger the release of endorphins, protect us against heart attack, and relaxes our muscles.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays