Marxist
The poem titled Poem, is about how a writer can show masses of people their message. This can be done without talking to each individual, but instead by writing one universal message to the world as a whole. This would definitely catch the eye of a Marxist for several reasons. One being that Marxists feels that the population should think and work for one common goal. They also believe that everyone should exist as equals and own nothing. This is why they might be interested in poetry. All they would have to do is write Marxist poems to tell the world of their ideals. It would also interest them to do it without relying on the capitalist postal system.
“Poem
It's like writing a short letter
to everyone in the world at once,
only I don't have anyone's address
and there is no thin blue envelope to carry it,
no tiny picture of a famous aviator
or of a blooming flower to speed it on its way.”
( Collins, Billy 2002)
Feminist
In the poem titled The Parade, Billy talks about humanity marching along to their death.
This at first seems like a scene on a beautiful summer day. But then the crowd veers towards a cliff of mortality. Now it is a maddening scene of people being pushed and pulled off the cliff to their doom. But there is more to this story than meets the eye.
Everyone in the parade of souls is moving as one. No one is better than the other, and everyone works together towards their cliff of death. A feminist would be pleased to see that no man in the crowd conceders himself to be better than any woman. Feminist believe that there is no difference in the abilities of men vs. woman. In addition, females are not being exploited for their looks or being harassed. These are the ideals that feminists are united in standing for. The parade is a feminist friendly death march that everyone can agree on.
Theme
Theme
In the Poem titled Today, there is a theme that is different from what Billy Collins usually writes. This theme is that of being happy. He is not confused or disturbed, nor is he pondering much at all. He is just happy with the sun shining with the birds chirping. He exclaims a need to make everything as free and happy as he is. This is a powerful theme that is contagious to anyone that reads it. In the majority of his other poems, he writes about being uncertain and confused. Sometimes he even sounds paranoid and scared. Almost as if he has experienced a strange event ahead of time and is expecting the Macomb outcome.
“Today
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,
a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies
seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking
a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,
releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage
so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting
into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.”
(Collins, Billy 2000)
“The Parade
How exhilarating it was to march
along the great boulevards
in the sunflash of trumpets
and under all the waving flags --
the flag of ambition, the flag of love.
So many of us streaming along --
all of humanity, really --
moving in perfect step,
yet each lost in the room of a private dream.
How stimulating the scenery of the world,
the rows of roadside trees,
the huge curtain of the sky.
How endless it seemed until we veered
off the broad turnpike
into a pasture of high grass,
headed toward the dizzying cliffs of mortality.
Generation after generation,
we keep shouldering forward
until we step off the lip into space.
And I should not have to remind you
that little time is given here
to rest on a wayside bench,
to stop and bend to the wildflowers,
or to study a bird on a branch --
not when the young
are always shoving from behind,
not when the old keep tugging us forward,
pulling on our arms with all their feeble strength.”
(Collins, Billy 2001).