Billy Collins: Two poems about what dogs think (probably)

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What must our dogs be thinking when they look at us? Poet Billy Collins imagines the inner lives of two very different companions. It's a charming short talk, perfect for taking a break and dreaming ...
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19 июн 2014

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Комментарии : 91

@4ngelo213 4 года назад

What an eerie yet cute perspective on the human condition, my favorite line was "I resented the way your moved, your lack of animal grace"

@alwaysuseless 10 лет назад

Reading the comments, I see some people have no appreciation for anthropomorphizing & somewhat whimsical humor. Yes, we must always be serious & literally accurate. Especially poetry should not be allowed to be funny or contradict our assumptions, including about what animals "think of us." These poems were as much about people as about dogs, & as such, were right on target. That's why they're funny. One of my favorite Billy Collins poems about a dog is called "Dharma." See The Best American Poetry 1999. I bet the negative critics won't bother, because they don't actually read or like good poetry. Well done, Mr. Collins. Thank you.

@fallingt 10 лет назад

I see what you're saying. Poetry is an art. But the purpose of these poems is to capture (artistically) dog consciousness or "what dogs think". In that task I believe both the poems did not do a very good job.. That is just a value judgement and of course it's hard to argue about value judgements.. but me having that judgement doesn't mean I have "no appreciation for anthropomorphizing & somewhat whimsical humor".. I just find the poems to be not very good especially when considering what they're meant to be about.

@alwaysuseless 10 лет назад

Aaron Jacobs Well said, although I disagree. I doubt that these poems present what the poet actually thinks dogs think. On the contrary, I think the poet assumes a persona & presents for our amusement & pleasure what the imagined narrator thinks dogs think. From this POV, criticizing the poem for lack of "accuracy" misses the joke & the whole point. The poet may be right to suggest that a beloved pet might not have liked his owner as much as the owner thinks, but beyond that possibility, the poems are meant as humor, not as a serious attempt at realistic canine psychology.

@edmondcoche5256 9 лет назад

@amandatrayes5272 Год назад

I've heard him read live twice. He's just wonderful.

@velvetunderpants44 4 года назад

The last line of the first poem is like a knife in my heart.

@KailynDekker 8 лет назад

Billy Collins is one of the most acclaimed poets of our time. It was nice to hear him read instead of reading his text. :D

@Jayf1981 10 лет назад

My dog Bash, is 3 and full of life. He's good. Seriously this guy makes me laugh nearly every day and I can tell he enjoys it. I'm not sure what that say's about him or me but I sure am grateful and I enjoy making him happy. Bash, is good people. He's informed by more than instinct and experience it seems.

@keirstenwahlberg6476 2 года назад

Flawless poetry

@emtay7515 10 лет назад

I love this man

@shawnbluejacket-roccamo5234 6 лет назад

Wonderful

@patrickvitullo9451 Год назад

Very good stuff and he's a master of couching a serious subject in himor.

@DEO777 10 лет назад

Here's what ALL dogs think: That human gives me food, I won't bite him, I will wag my tail. That human doesn't give me food, I'll take a nap.

@MeLexdy 10 лет назад

More or less yeah :)

@ThereAreNoHandlesLeft 10 лет назад

WHAT WAS THAT? Oh yeah, my tail. WHAT WAS THAT?! Oh yeah, my tail. ...I think my balls itch.

@comfortouch 10 лет назад

SQUIRREL!!!!

@BaseballCards35 10 лет назад

What if they thought about more in depth thoughts? We'll never know..

@AnaQocean 9 лет назад

wow, the "enlightened' one... I hope you never had/get to have a dog with this understanding of them.

@alwaysuseless 10 лет назад

"... that everyone here can read and write the dogs in poetry, the cats and all the others in prose." Haha, nice dig at the dominance of prose and at cats & humans, and a claim of superiority for poetry & dogs-consistent with the conceit that the poem was written by a dog. Love his poems that take you to a place by the end that is unexpected or says more than the topic originally suggested.

@MYshamanEYE 10 лет назад

this is true but i was thinking as he read it ,.. he could have ended it at the first " "i never liked you " and left it there ,it would have had a more profound punchier feel to it ,..lol

@alwaysuseless 10 лет назад

***** "I never liked you" gets the biggest laugh, because it's the turning point, the shock that the beloved pet didn't reciprocate the owner's feelings. But to just come to a turning point and then stop would be strange, abrupt, & surely unsatisfying for most readers or listeners. Once you turn, you need to go somewhere with it, and the poet does a good job of it.

@LaFlaneuse0 3 года назад

@@alwaysuseless Very well said six years ago.

@Nunekhiia 8 лет назад

I loved this! I love dogs so much haha I've thought of not poems but mini ideas for short films. x)

@charlessmyth 10 лет назад

Excellent :-)

@jadex38 5 лет назад

Beautiful! Love!!!

@joecarter4833 Год назад

This is hilarious. Loved this.

@BoTyDogs 9 лет назад

hmmm made me think^^, for me dogs are like us people..

@korifinity 4 года назад

Billy Collins- Dogs- Where The Red Fern Grows...

@disavillada6758 3 года назад

💙

@kimramey66 4 года назад

I like you Billy.

@Phelan666 10 лет назад

My dog thinks the brush is a torture device.

@bjack328 4 года назад

Yellow King mine 2

@ShawnRavenfire 10 лет назад

The second dog sounds more like a cat.

@dreaminginnoother 10 лет назад

Here's what I imagine most dogs think "OH HI! How are you, hi! Let's be friends, wanna be friends? We're friends. Hey what's that over there? Wanna go on a walk? Wanna give me food? Oh, what's that there?"

@ds8336 Год назад

I think the comments reveal exactly what Billy is observing within the poems. beautifully juxtaposed against each other - critiquing humans’ self aggrandizement. doesn’t matter what dogs think - the irony is that everyone in the comments think they know better than anyone else, including Billy, including dogs themselves

@ColdFusionDogBob 10 лет назад

Thats two poems of what humans would think if they where dogs.

@greatmcluhansghost7134 5 лет назад

little deeper dive than most. more empathy than you'll find from someone on their phone and watching tv while their dog wishes they'd take him out to play.

@sunniefranklin 2 года назад

Can we please appreciate the satire of the last poem? Billy Collins, if you should ever see this, can you please confirm or deny if you have ever had a dog, and, if you did, did they occasionally look at you disdainfully? What made you think of the topic for the last poem?

@JJ-ck1vg 10 лет назад

Bacon ? did you say... bacon? ruff ,

@BrickTamlandOfficial 10 лет назад

this is sadder than the sarah mclaughlin commercials

@GRiMHOLDx 10 лет назад

"In the eyes of an angel...Blahblahblaaaaah!"

@BrickTamlandOfficial 10 лет назад

GRiMHOLD i think it's arms not eyes

@Sinezungu 10 лет назад

That second dog is a cat in disguise, trying to give dogs a bad name...

@lingyang940 6 месяцев назад

😅😅😂maybe

@LanceWinslow 10 лет назад

Those are some 'rough' comments.

@BrianDornTFP 8 лет назад

If the poems were about cats, there would probably be more rhyming.

@CalebGriffinEsq 4 года назад

Particularly if the cat wore a hat...

@PlainsPup 10 лет назад

Aesop: "The Dog and the Wolf"

@outlawJosieFox 10 лет назад

I would be depressed if I were his dog.

@user-lt9zq6bn8g 10 лет назад

Enough internet for today.

@buzzwerd8093 10 лет назад

Does someone have a guilty conscience?

@skaermf 10 лет назад

okay

@prolltarodies 10 лет назад

Pot! I dont love it but Im not against it...

@DeMaRcAmRx 10 лет назад

Huh

@xtraspecialmango 10 лет назад

This is a poem about what dogs think that we think (almost definitely) Woof! -Woof!-Bark....Bark?- Woof-Lick own Genitals-Sick up Grass? Meow.

@Wheresnorth4romhere 4 года назад

First poem was beautiful. Second one not so nice.

@beckyweller-parks4463 10 лет назад

The TRUTH does not set you free. KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH SETS YOU FREE. You lie.

@sirjasonman 10 лет назад

I really hope no stolen money (taxes) was used for any research into this.

@whitelightwolfthewatchhasb6406 5 лет назад

Lmfao explaining my thoughts on this.. I find no end... like howling at the moon when nature calls.. I do not think of what I am.. something a dawg never does is morph into a man like I do.. some say I never have.. what memories.. what dreams.. the dawg has no buisness being explained by people.. and definitely not you

@AnneM612 8 лет назад

This was horrible. I saw something in my facebook feed about 6 TED talks for dog lovers. I had to put my dog to sleep yesterday and the second one is all about how much the dog hated their human. It was awful.

@whitegirl7757 3 года назад

Sailing alone around in the room. Rude

@fallingt 10 лет назад

These poems may be cute, but they're definitely not close to what dogs "think"..

@CalebGriffinEsq 4 года назад

Those are jokes and he's a funny poet. Not some scientist reading the results of the latest study on canine cognition. You're supposed to find it cute and smile.

@Ariananikita 10 лет назад

I believe most, if not all, non-human animals have more complex cognitive abilities than those for which most of us would give them credit. That being said, this was, at best, cute; at worst, disrespectful. There should be no "probably" in the title - only "perhaps", maybe - because we cannot say for sure what they think, and this is an unjustified anthropomorphisation of a dog's potential thoughts. Also, not sure why it's a TED Talk...

@TheSneakyTruth 10 лет назад

In the context of this video and your assertion above, what is the difference in meaning between anthropomorphism and personification?

@Ariananikita 10 лет назад

TheSneakyTruth I can't think of any difference. Why?

@TheSneakyTruth 10 лет назад

Because I see this term used quite frequently within the literature and philosophy sphere, and never fully understood the distinction between it and 'personification.' As a student of the sciences, it always perplexes me as to why people just don't keep things simple.

@TheSneakyTruth 10 лет назад

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a personal attack. I'm merely just trying to increase my own vocabulary and understanding.

@Ariananikita 10 лет назад

TheSneakyTruth Oh, yeah, no worries. I didn't take it as a personal attack. I use it 'cause it's with what I'm most familiar. Also, outside of this context, personification can be used more flexibly - "So-and-so is the personification of all things good." - whereas anthropomorphisation is always used to cast something in a more human light.

@scoelliot15 9 лет назад

These are supposed to be ´poems´..? Where´s the rhyming?

@mathut3782 9 лет назад

Not all poems rhyme. Rhyme is a literary device some may like to use. It's not a requirement. I personally prefer poems that don't rhyme.

@scoelliot15 9 лет назад

mat hut I guess it's personal preference, I prefer rhyming poems. They're much more interesting to listen to and have a flow unlike unrhyming poems, but I guess that's just my opinion.