Billy Collins Overrated Poet

Overrated Poems:
Billy Collins Writing Portrays him as an Overrated Poet

Billy Collins is known as the greatest poet of his time. He has written many poems and books, Collins poems have been chosen several times for the annual best American poetry series. Out of all the poems he has written only thirty three of his poems were released during his time. Billy Collins poems are said to be the best and to be meaningful but it will be proven otherwise. Collins has written thousands of famous poems and the ones people may know of the most are “Taking Emily Dickenson’s Clothes”, “Flames”, and “To my Favorite 17-year old High School Girl.” A Collins poem is easy to get lost in as in the sense that no one really knows what is going on. Billy Collins is classified as one of the best poets of his time, even though Collins as a poet is overrated at best and belittles several people and ideas.
Billy Collins poem “Taking off Emily Dickenson’s Clothes” is not a deep meaningful poem but a metaphorical slap to Dickenson. In this poem Collins sexualizes Dickenson by saying “and I proceeded like a polar explorer through clips, claps, and moorings, catches, straps and whalebone stays, sailing toward the iceberg of her nakedness” (Collins 5).   This part of the poem clearly really sexualizes Dickenson, when in reality Emily Dickenson was very prudent. However, in this particular poem he makes her seem lustful. For people who may not know who Emily Dickenson truly was and what she stood for they can clearly mistake and characterize her as a sexual object. In this part of the poem he says “…. before my hand can part the fabric, like a swimmer’s diving water, and a slip inside” (Collins 3). In that part of the poem Collins is talking about the fabric of the white dress. The white dress represents Dickenson’s purity but when Collins writes about taking if off it besmirches her innocence. Collins seems to be misleading readers who don’t know exactly who Emily Dickenson was by making...