Forgetfulness

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1990

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Critical Context

Despite Collins’s wide-reaching fame and fandom, many critics have taken issue with his poetic style over the years. The poet’s work is rooted in accessibility, colloquial language, and humor, but some feel that it recycles tropes or relies too heavily on cuteness and accessibility at the expense of art. R. D. Pohl, in an article for the Buffalo News, identifies some of the typical criticisms:

To his critics, however, Collins is a ‘major minor’ poet at best whose work is formulaic, if not predictable, and whose relentless efforts to charm the reader assume that the only way a poem can work is on the demotic level, which is to say, as colloquial speech. His criticism of the predilection toward ‘difficulty’ in contemporary poetry plays well on the reading circuit but reads like a repudiation of his modernist roots (Pohl, R.D. “Poetic Justice Billy Collins Still Stirs Controversy.” The Buffalo News, 17 Nov. 2006).

Critics like Ernest Hilbert offer a deeper look into Collins’s oeuvre, asserting that Collins sometimes relies too heavily on punch lines and clichés. He notes, however, that Collins’s poems read aloud exceptionally well, and this quality has helped Collins achieve his mass appeal (Hilbert, Ernest. “Wages of Fame: The Case of Billy Collins.” CPR).

While some critics maintain a critical eye toward Collins, others acknowledge his impact on American letters. The Yale Review of Books notes, “While Billy Collins’ poetry is simple in its language and form and resists profound meaning and associations, its adamant mission to make a place for poetry in American life overcomes those inherent frailties” (“Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems Book by Billy Collins.” Yale Review of Books RSS).

Collins’s accessibility and popularity serve an integral function in and of themselves: to keep poetry a relevant artform for the larger American culture.

Authorial Context

Collins often writes about his personal experiences. While his tone and subject matter distinguish him from other schools of poetry, like the confessionals, his mission to broaden poetry’s accessibility means that he often writes from personal experience in plain language. “Forgetfulness,” a poem crafted in the middle of the poet’s career but just before he became more widely known, is an earlier example of the style Collins would cultivate over the next decades.

“Forgetfulness” takes on the subject of aging and death, a relevant theme for Collins, who was 50 years old at the time of publication. In an interview with The Paris Review, Collins said, “I don’t write about my life as a series of major autobiographical events. I write about events that are fairly trivial, like going for a walk and looking at a swan” (Plimpton, George. “The Art of Poetry No. 83.” The Paris Review, 6 Mar. 2020).

“Forgetfulness” embodies this poetics, not only in its cataloging of small, seemingly banal things, but in the everyday nature of his themes: death and aging. Collins sees these as objects of contemplation, and the world as full of their reminders (some sad, some funny).