The poem “Some Days” by Billy Collins was published in 1998 as part of the collection of poems Picnic, Lightning. This book solidified Collins’s reputation and he became Poet Laureate of the United States soon after its publication. “Some Days” is widely read because of its accessible message: The elusory traps of society is universal subject matter.

Through metaphor, this free verse poem explores the theme of control, casting people as dolls and society as a dollhouse. Collins discusses what it means to live in a world where an individual vacillates between being controlled by people and systems much bigger than them and being the one in control. Similar to other poems, Collins conveys this powerful and relevant message about society and control through his use of stark imagery and conversational diction, both of which are generally palatable to a wide audience of readers.

Poet Biography

Billy Collins is famous for his widely accessible poems that offer gentle humor and deep observations on the everyday and seemingly mundane. It is because of his use of simple language and appeal to poets and average readers alike that Collins has received unprecedented notoriety for a modern poet.

Collins was born in 1941 and grew up in Queens, New York. After earning his doctorate in Romantic Poetry in 1971, Collins began his career as a professor of English (“Billy Collins,” Poets.org). Throughout the 1970s, Collins’s poems and other pieces of writing appeared in various magazines, but it wasn’t until 1977 that Collins published his first book of poetry, Pokerface. In the 1980s and 90s, Collins continued to publish new collections of poetry and gain recognition for his work.

From 2001-03, Collins served as the US Poet Laureate. In 2002, he wrote a poem to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center (“Billy Collins,” Poetry Foundation). After his time as US Poet Laureate, Collins served as New York State Poet Laureate from 2004-06 (“About Billy Collins,” Billy Collins Poetry).

Collins continues to be a regular guest on National Public Radio programs as well as consistently publishing new poetry collections; he most recently published Whale Day and Other Poems in 2020. Collins gave a TED Talk and continues his work by expanding into other areas of expression, like pairing his poetry with animation.

Poem Text

Collins, Billy. “Some Days.” 1998. Poets.org.

Summary

In the beginning of “Some Days” the speaker says they “put the people” (Line 1) in chairs around a table and controls their movements. These people are presumed to be dolls because the speaker controls their movements and “bend[s] their legs at the knees” (Line 2). In the second stanza, the speaker describes the clothes of the dolls he has “place[d] at the table” (Line 1). The dolls all “face” (Line 5) each other and do not move.

In the third stanza the speaker says that “other days” (Line 9), they are the one being “lifted up by the ribs” (Line 10) and put at the table “with the others” (Line 12) as if they were also a doll. This changes the perspective given in the first two stanzas where the speaker is the one in control.

In the fourth and final stanzas the speaker expresses dismay at the unpredictability of being treated as a doll. The speaker addresses the reader: “[H]ow would you like it / if you never knew” (Lines 14-15) whether you were going to be living in control “like a vivid god” (Line 17) or be the one controlled, like a doll, “staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?” (Line 20)