Man Listening to Disc Analysis

This poem can be characterized as an ode. Why? Well, it's a poem of praise. It's a poem in which the speaker pays homage to the jazz musicians he loves, and to the power of their music. (Can we wri...

This is one happy speaker. How can he not be? The weather is great, he's strollin' around the coolest city in the world, the wind's whipping through his hair, and he's listening to some awesome jaz...

This poem is set in the Big Bad Apple, a.k.a. New York City. The speaker tells us exactly where he is in New York: the poem starts with him telling us that he's walking along 44th Street (which is...

This is a very chatty poem. The language is simple, it's direct and conversational, and so it sounds like the speaker is just chatting directly to us readers. Let's take a couple of stanzas as an e...

The title "Man Listening to Disc" tells us a few important things. Thing one: we are back in pre-iPod days. Who listens to "discs" or CDs anymore? Do we even remember what those look like? Okay, so...

The themes of Collins' poetry vary, but we can recognize his style because of how accessible it is. This isn't a poet who's going to make us tear our hair out trying to understand what he means. Hi...

Given that this poem is written in pretty simple, direct language, it's not hard to follow. The only thing that might take some figuring is that there are all of these references to musicians like...

Billy Collins, the author of "Man Listening to Disc," has been described as the "most popular poet in America." Now that's a title to have.(Source)Did you know that Billy Collins received a six-fig...

There isn't anything raunchy in this poem that would necessitate us giving it any rating above a G—just some sweet, sweet tunes.

Sonny Rollins (3): Rollins is a famous jazz saxophonist, born in 1930, who became influential in the jazz music scene beginning in the 1950s.Tommy Potter (16): This jazz bass player played with man...