Posted on September 3, 2010.
Can someone help me analyze Billy Collins poem "passengers"? The passengers, by Billy Collins
At the door, I'm sitting in a row of blue seats
possible with the company of my death,
This sprawling collection of people -
hand luggage and pockets -
which could be combined in a flash
within a band of pilgrims on the last open road.
Not that I think
if our plane crumpled into a mountain
we would all go together
holding hands like a ring of skydivers,
in a sudden burst of light,
or there would be a common
to come together to jubilate the moment
some free space without pillars Greece
where we have been able to count of three,
mix our ashes into the sunny air.
It's just the way the man has his briefcase
so willing,
how this girl is her cup of tea cooling
and flow of the crest of this woman
through her daughter's hair ...
and considering the altitude,
the secret parts of the engine,
and the water hard and deep canyons below ...
Well, I just think it would be good if one of us
can be got up and said a few words,
or, so as not to invoke the police
at least quietly wrote something.
I'm sorry, but I find this poem quite simple and clear.
She asked: "And if those people in the waiting room with me are the people with whom I will spend the last moments of my life if the accident occur? What if we all go together all that awaits us beyond this life (the "no space, no pillars in Greece), where we are kind of celebrating this new eternal life together and not care from what we left behind?
(To understand the concept of "not caring" of death, you need to read a lot about the concept - Christians and non Christians - from the beyond.)
Thus, the narrator of the poem says - is not realistic, but simply personal recognition of the possibility of death - "Just in case, just in case we die together - because we could, after all - should not t we all, or perhaps quietly, recognize our common danger, the chances of all our death?
In other words, the poet is simply looking around and saying, what are the people with whom I could die. I take note of them, and perhaps they should take note of me.
