Within the poem, Divorce, Billy Collins shifts from talking about a happily married couple to a divorced couple with their lawyers by using elaborate metaphors and silverware imagery to portray the refined violence in marital separation.
The poem, Divorce consists of two stanzas with two lines in each stanza. According to the journal article, Critical Survey of Poetry, the author states that Divorce is part of Collins’ book of haikus and he demonstrates the restraint, the economy of language, and deeply evoked image within this poem, which is the main characteristic of haikus. This entire poem is almost entirely of metaphor, which is a figure of speech that makes a hidden comparison between two things that are not related to each other. Usually, an author would try to connect the meaning of a specific poem with the length of that poem. For example, metaphors can be expanded and explained throughout longer poems, while shorter poems resemble metaphors in their essence. With Divorce, the removal of the least relevant information focuses on the importance of the details presented and provides the reader with the central plot of the poem.
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To begin with, Collins uses descriptive imagery to show the feelings that are being felt in this setting. For example, the first line in the first stanza states, “Once, two spoons in bed…” (Collins, line 1). Here, the word “Once” creates a sense of nostalgia while alerting the reader that they shouldn’t get too involved with this soon-to-be-divorced couple. Collins also gives the reader an image of a happy couple lying down in their bed while all cuddled up together through the metaphor of the spoons. Also, the two spoons can be a reference to the sexual position of spooning between two people in bed, like spoons nested together in a drawer. Furthermore, the bed in this line is seen as a place of intimacy and vulnerability. To many people, being in the comfort of a bed is a physically warm place to be and also, emotionally warm, as people lay with their significant other. Overall, the spoons symbolize this once-beautiful marriage of a happy couple.
In addition, the next line states, “…now tined forks” (line 2). Instead of being cuddled up as spoons, the couple is now forks with sharp tines. Here in this quotation, Collins uses the word, “Now” to show the reader the current relationship status of the couple. The forks symbolize the decline in the marriage between these two people and their aggressive behavior towards each other. The gaps between the 'tines' represent the transition of their relationship from being smooth spoons to sharp forks and how their love for each other is falling apart. Overall, this image is far more of pain than of love, and this gives the audience a feeling of emotional and physical distance that is growing between the once happy pair.
Furthermore, the third line states, “...across a granite table” (line 3). Here, Collins uses granite because it gives off an image of coldness and hardness between the pair. Also, since a granite table would most likely be located in a dining room, it gives a lot less personal setting than the bedroom at the beginning of the poem. This quote allows the reader to feel the distance and tension that now separates the couple. Finally, the last line reads, “…and the knives they have hired” (line 4). In contrast to the harmony implied by spoons and the hostility of forks clashing against each other, Collins uses knives to portray the divorce lawyers that the couple hired. The blade also symbolizes that lawyers are cold and bitter, and cutting away at what was once a loving and caring relationship. This quotation shows the reader the last straw of the couple’s relationship and what they are doing because of it.
In conclusion, Collins created a world of meaning in a more complex story that was able to be expressed through a short poem. In the journal article, Critical Survey of Poetry, the author states that this poem retains Collins’s famous sense of humor while at the same time evoking the searing pain of a marriage ending. For him and many other poets, speed is, and has been proven in Collins’ case, a significant contributor to the poem’s impact. In eighteen short words, Collins carries the poem from comfort to discomfort, and finally, to a hard coldness. Collins can make so many complex emotions so clear and to do it so swiftly is a testament to the powers of accuracy and the contracted metaphor.
Work Cited
- Collins, Billy. “Divorce.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, Norton & Co., 2013, pp.708.
- Garnett, Ann D., and Larson, Susan T. “Billy Collins.” Critical Survey of Poetry: American Poets (I), edited by Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman, Salem, 2011. Salem Online(I), https://online.salempress.com
- Strychar, Stefan. “A Lot from a Little: Demystifying the Aphoristic Poem.” The Critical Flame, 7 Sept. 2015, http://criticalflame.org/a-lot-from-a-little-demystifying-the-aphoristic-poem/.
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