In 1999 he signed a six-figure, three-book deal with publishing giant Random House, the result of which is his first collection of new and selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room. Good or bad, Collins’ accessibility has brought him commercial success almost unprecedented for a living poet. For his critics, however, his trademark plain language and common themes imply a kind of self-centered superficiality that, while attracting readers, fails in its poetic duty to create new understanding.
For his devotees, Billy Collins’ brilliance lies in this straightforwardness and its ability to captivate people who are completely unfamiliar with poetry. There is no doubt that the simplicity of his language and the applicability of his everyday subject matter make Collins’ poetry interesting and approachable to a wide range of readers. Billy Collins’ poetry has long been described as “accessible”-a term that has been used as both a compliment and a disparagement.
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