19 pages 38 minutes read

Billy Collins

Litany

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2002

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.

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

A litany is a list-like series of formulaic pleas, most often used for religious purposes; the word also connotes a boring and tedious recitation of something in list form. Collins merges this second meaning of the term and the classic poetic structure of the blazon, or a poem enumerating a beloved’s best qualities via a series of metaphors, and inverts it, joining the humorous tradition of the counterblazon.

The poem consists of an epigram followed by seven stanzas of varying lengths. It is written in Collins’s distinctive free verse, lacking meter or rhyme. However, Collins uses repetition to give the poem a sense of rhythm.

The poem juxtaposes the upper register of classic poetry form with the conversational syntax of contemporary speech: Colloquial phrases like “There is just no way” (Line 11) undercut the old-fashioned high tone.

Metaphor

“Litany” is a long string of metaphors, or comparisons that do not use the distancing words “like” or “as.” These often-tongue-in-cheek metaphors satirize the overreliance of love poets on clichéd

Related Titles

By Billy Collins

Study Guide

logo

Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun In The House

Billy Collins

Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun In The House

Billy Collins

Study Guide

logo

Forgetfulness

Billy Collins

Forgetfulness

Billy Collins

Study Guide

logo

On Turning Ten

Billy Collins

On Turning Ten

Billy Collins

Study Guide

logo

Some Days

Billy Collins

Some Days

Billy Collins

Study Guide

logo

The History Teacher

Billy Collins

The History Teacher

Billy Collins