Teaches Reading and Writing Poetry

Billy Collins

Meet your new instructor: Billy Collins, one of the most popular and prolific poets of our time. In your first lesson, Billy introduces the many pleasures of poetry and illuminates how poetry connects you to the history of the human heart.

Introduction: The Pleasure Poetry Gives Us

Billy teaches you how to use form to win the love of your readers, an audience of strangers.

Working With Form

In poetry, you can do anything and go anywhere. Learn how to embrace the freedom of poetry to embark on explorations of subject, progression, and the balance of clarity and mystery.

Discovering the Subject

Billy teaches practical exercises that will galvanize your writing process.

Writing the Poem

Billy shares his personal notebooks and gives rare insight into the process of writing his poem “Grand Central.”

Writing Process

A poem is not a cookbook. Learn how embracing nuance and ambiguity can be your greatest ally when reading poetry.

Reading: Connecting With Poetry

Billy invites acclaimed poet and friend Marie Howe to read and discuss Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain.” Learn how Dickinson’s creative use of capitalization builds an entire world out of a state of mind.

Discussion With Marie Howe: Emily Dickinson

Billy and Marie discuss how the speaker in William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73” uses metaphor to bid a final farewell to his beloved.

Discussion With Marie Howe: William Shakespeare

Learn the tools beyond rhyme and meter that Billy utilizes to achieve a musical, toe-tapping kind of joy in his poetry.

Sound Pleasures

Billy is a self-proclaimed “terrible rhymer.” Learn one of his techniques for capturing a reader’s attention without relying on rhymed or metered poetry.

Playing a Visible Game

Billy teaches you how to harness the imaginative flexibility of a poem, turning it in new directions to be playful with your reader.

Turning a Poem

Learn how what began as a letter to her brother became one of Marie’s most acclaimed poems with “What the Living Do.”

Discussion With Marie Howe: "What the Living Do"

Billy and Marie unpack how Billy’s poem “The Death of the Hat” moves from being a poem about a hat to an elegy for his father.

Discussion With Marie Howe: "The Death of the Hat"

Your voice lies on the shelves of the library and the bookstore. Learn how reading the work of other poets will help develop your unique persona.

Finding Your Voice: Influences

Learn how to develop a distinctive persona for yourself, solving most issues around writing poetry.

Finding Your Voice: Creating a Persona

Billy shares how humor is an essential part of his persona and teaches you how to use humor in your poetry for serious reasons.

Humor as a Serious Strategy

Learn how spacing and word repetition create tone in student Sarah Iqbal’s poem “My (Muslim) Father Seizes the Thing on My Nightstand.”

Student Discussion: "My (Muslim) Father Seizes the Thing on My Nightstand" by Sarah Iqbal

Billy and student Paul Epland discuss point of view in “The Crash.” Learn how Billy’s suggestion to add three words helps with the turn in the poem.

Student Discussion: "The Crash" by Paul Epland

According to Marie, “so much of writing is getting beyond the will.” Billy and Marie share practical exercises they use to get out of their heads and into their writing.

Discussion With Marie Howe: Writing Poetry

Billy invites you to join the club of poets who have been writing since the beginning of time.

A Poet's Journey

Billy Collins Teaches Reading and Writing Poetry

Seeing the page differently

Not everything should be a mystery

Write as one continuous act

Don't torture the poem

Good poetry should be seen and heard

Write it out, find your voice

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