Arts & Entertainment, Writing
Playing a Visible Game
Lesson time 08:49 min
Billy is a self-proclaimed “terrible rhymer.” Learn one of his techniques for capturing a reader’s attention without relying on rhymed or metered poetry.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Visible Game in “Questions About Angels”
Teaches Reading and Writing Poetry
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.
Sign UpPreview
- OK, so you're writing poems today, and you don't want to be a formal poet, or I would say, like me, you don't have the talent to be a formal poet. I'm a-- I'm a terrible rhymer. My latest book is titled "The Rain in Portugal," which is supposed to be a kind of trigger warning to the reader that there's not much rhyming going on inside there. But there is a way to compensate, I think. And I've come up with a name for it, and I call it playing a visible game. And-- and as a way of compensating for the predictability of rhymes and metered poetry, playing a visible game means just turning over cards in the beginning of the poem, to let the reader in on what's up, what's going to happen in the future. What game are we playing here? What's the pattern? And I'll give you a few examples without reading the whole poems. I mean, one is the famous poem by Wallace Stevens, "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Well, if you haven't read the poem before, you don't know what he's going to say about blackbirds, but you know-- and you can see on the page that the poem comes in those little segments, and you're going to go one from the other and they're all going to concern blackbirds. So there he's turned over a huge card which lets you know what's going to happen without telling you exactly what's going to happen. Another poem that strikes me as a good example, and I think I have it here, is a poem by Charles Simic, one of my favorites. It's called "Bestiary for the Fingers of My Right Hand." Well, you know that this poem is going to come in five parts, right? And he starts-- numbered poem-- he starts with "Thumb, loose tooth of a horse. Rooster to his hens. Horn of a devil. Fat worm they have attached to my flesh at the time of my birth. It takes four to hold him down, bend him in half, until the bone begins to whimper. Cut him off. He can take care of himself. Take root in the earth, or go hunting with wolves." "The second points the way." I won't read the whole poem, but "the middle one has a backache." "The fourth is a mystery." "Something stirs in the fifth," "his touch is gentle. It weighs a tear. It takes the mote out of the eye." So it's a beautiful poem. And again, not just because of some exchanges but the fact that we know something, and we are joyfully led through each finger with expectation and surprise. [GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING] - If you want to practice writing a poem that is a visible game, and I think that gives immediate delight to readers, you can announce it in the title by saying, you know, 5 ways of doing something, or 13 ways of looking at this or that. I have a poem called "Questions About Angels" that I-- that basically is a set of questions about angels. I wouldn't mind reading "Questions About Angels." So this is my poem, "Questions About Angels." Of all the questions you might want to ask about angels, the only one you ever hear is how many can dance on the head of a pin. No curiosity about how t...
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.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
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.
Explore the Class