Poetry as Word, Sound, and Image
I’m curious what you think. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you probably know that Billy Collins is one of my favorite poets. I love the simplicity of language and imagery, the unpretentiousness of his poems and person, his ability to evoke emotion and insight through succinct use of language, and the reliable good humor he employs (just read To My Favorite 17 Year-Old High School Girl or Litany for stellar examples).
In the TED Talk below, he shares a description of an invitation he received to allow some of his poetry to be illustrated in short films. And here’s where my question come: do you think the videos add to the poetry? Do they bring it alive, add another dimension, help you enter his poetry differently? Or do they distract? I’ve got my own feelings, but am still a little ambivalent and so am curious about your thoughts as well. If nothing else, in the space of 15 minutes you get to hear Collins read some of his own poetry, and that alone is worth the price of admission.
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I much enjoyed the poems and thought the videos were great; although, it does take away from the reader, in respects to creating their own visions of the poem. I think it takes away, like a movie is never as good as the book.
Oh, how I loved listening to this, these resources and oh how I laughed! Especially hard! It is an interesting question that you ask… about whether seeing him read makes a difference to the experience. I love to imagine the person speaking…hearing them– truly hearing them in the flesh, it is different then a movie director directing a film and changing elements. I love seeing how the poet pauses, how he adds emphasis, and how his eyes crinkle just so with a particular movement in the poem. In the flesh, he adds a charm and a challenge to my imaginative reading. That is a bonus in my book– even if it doesn’t quite match what is imagined…it is so much better for the embodiment.
Billy Collins is such a wonder! Listening to this absolutely made my day. Thank you! In response to your question, I loved the poems, and his reading, but did find the images distracting. Would rather let my own imagination, rather than someone else’s, illustrate the action.
I like Billy Collins’ poetry. The videos distracted me from listening to the read poems. I agree with Collins’ early comment that the reader should do some work. I rather like letting poetry evoke images, feelings and thoughts in my mind as I read. It enhances the poetic experience. There is no need for coupling the poems with videos.
I really like his dry humour. I think the animations are well done, but I prefer to allow my imagination to work with poetry without pictures as that allows for a personal interpretation of a poem, which seems to me to be the mark of good poetry – that is a poem (or a song) needs to have an abstract quality to allow many different people to relate to it – in my opinion.
I like my poetry “neat,” no visuals but the embellishments of my imagination, no auditory but the voices that inhabit my head. Luddite? Yes, probably. But so grateful for the fullness of each art form, standing on its own two created feet.
Thanks for the challenge, David.
I am still pondering this question. Having watched the videos…both of him speaking the poem…and the animations, I find that the two experiences are different. I still think that “seeing” him read is different than simply reading myself. The animations are different too…The animations do not allow me to “re-read” and understand/comprehend the poem in the same way. I am taken down particular paths by the animation and can’t keep up. Hard to explain. But I understood his adolescence poem much, much better when I watched him, or read it on my own. The other poems were more difficult to understand and more difficult to “re-read” or rerun. In learning, I find that I must re-read poetry to fully comprehend. The videos of animation do not allow for the same kind of embodiment that I see when the poet reads himself. Your initial question captivates me because of the debate on whether “visual media” has changed/enhanced how we process things. I have often wondered if we, as a culture, have “lost” something in the gains that have been made in having so much visual media. So I am clarifying my initial response. I still love to see “just the poet” reading his words. That is a gift. But the animation is not the embodiment that I appreciate. It is actually dis-embodiment. My comprehension is less for the animation, not more.
So, never having read or heard these poems, I listened first with my eyes closed. I much preferred my on images, yet I think the artist’s illustrations will last longer than my own. (There is an edginess that the artists have that my imagination does not.)
Either with or without illustrations, I do enjoy hearing the author’s voice.
One thing more. I sense the sound effects and audience responses strongly influence the mood (or tone) of my imagination.
Thanks, David.
The animations were fun to watch as Billy read his poetry. However, I really enjoyed watching him read his last poem about the 17 year old! I found that I did pay more attention to the words of the poem when I could just watch him read. He has such a gift! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks for posting Billy Collin’s TedTalk, Dave. I recently came across an anthology of sorts of his poems in a bookstore and loved his sense of humor and the angle of his view. Now that I came across your post, I think I will go back and purchase that book. Really enjoy your blog. Are you a pastor? And, if so, where?