Arts & Entertainment, Writing
Discussion With Marie Howe: "The Death of the Hat"
Lesson time 11:02 min
Billy and Marie unpack how Billy’s poem “The Death of the Hat” moves from being a poem about a hat to an elegy for his father.
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Topics include: Discussion With Marie Howe: "The Death of the Hat"
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In his first-ever online class, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins teaches you how to find joy, humor, and humanity in reading and writing poetry.
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[GENTLE MUSIC] - So Billy, what I love about your poems is that they often don't immediately announce what they're about. - Mm-hm. - Not about, forgive me. A poem's not about something. But "Death of a Hat," for example, I would love you to read because this poem moves me so much. - OK. Thank you. Well, let me read it then. "The Death of the Hat." Once, every man wore a hat. In the ashen newsreels, the avenues of cities are broad rivers flowing with hats. The ballparks swelled with thousands of straw hats, brims and bands, rows of men smoking and cheering in shirtsleeves. Hats were the law. They went without saying. You noticed a man in a crowd without a hat. You bought them from Adams or Dobbs, who branded your initials in gold on the inside band. Trolleys crisscrossed the city. Steamships sailed in and out of the harbor. Men with hats gathered on the docks. There was a person to block your hat and a hatcheck girl to mind it while you had a drink or a steak with peas and a baked potato. In your office stood a hat rack. The day war was declared everyone in the street was wearing a hat. And they were wearing hats when a ship loaded with men and women sank in the icy sea. My father wore one to work every day and returned home carrying the evening paper, the winter chill radiating from his overcoat. But today we go bareheaded into the winter streets, stand hatless on frozen platforms. Today the mailboxes on the roadside and the spruce trees behind the house wear cold white hats of snow. Mice scurry from the stone walls at night in their thin fur hats to eat the birdseed that has spilled. And now my father, after a life of work, wears a hat of earth, and on top of that, a lighter one of cloud and sky-- a hat of wind. - So moving. - Well, thank you. - So-- you know. - Well he-- he'd-- my father came in later. He-- I did-- I was provoked by watching old movies or whatever, and-- to talk about this fashion, that men was required to wear a hat, really. And it really lasted until Kennedy was president, and he didn't wear a hat. With that hair, why would you want to wear a hat? - And that was it. - And that pretty much killed the hat business. But I think it ends up being an elegy for my father. - Mm. - But it was really started out to be just a poem, playing with the idea of wearing hats and how that was the fashion. - But-- - And? - "In the ashen newsreels--" - Yeah, that's-- that's early there. - I mean, there it is. - Yeah, instead of black and white-- - Right. Ashen. - --ashen. - "The ashen newsreels" struck me right away. It was such a great word for describing black and white, and it also brings up all those wars and the men going and returning. - Right. - Our fathers, with their hats-- - And there's the ship sinking, and there's the Second World War. - Absolutely. And even "The ballparks swelled"-- I mean, ...
About the Instructor
Known for his wit and wisdom, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins is one of America’s most beloved contemporary poets. In his MasterClass, Billy teaches you to appreciate the emotional pull of poetry. Learn his approach to exploring subjects, incorporating humor, and finding your voice. Discover the profound in the everyday, and let poetry lead you to the unexpected.
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Billy Collins
In his first-ever online class, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins teaches you how to find joy, humor, and humanity in reading and writing poetry.
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