This poem is named so due to its rhetorical structure. Billy Collins penned this poem with the aim of responding to the philosophical quote, “A whole refers to which has a beginning, middle as well as an end.” According to Billy, a beginning can be termed soothing, which happens naturally. On the contrary, an end refers to something which follows another thing. A middle is something which follows another thing as another thing follows it. In other words, Billy seeks to set forth the idea that a constructive plot should never start haphazardly but should conform to the philosophical quote and principle. Additionally, he elaborates on Aristotle’s famous statement, specifically throughout his poetic work. Billy Collins’s “Aristotle” clearly illuminates that everything has a beginning, a middle and an end and exemplifies issues such as order and chaos.
Rhetoric is evident when Collins separates his stanzas, hence classifying the particular elements present in each section of the plot. He goes ahead and gives numerous details on what takes place in the beginning. Additionally, Collins provides readers with diverse details with the aim of stimulating minds. In his stanzas, he unifies the desired elements through the beginning, middle, and end. The beginning harbours a sense of hope and simplicity, while the middle plot is overcrowded and requires high critical thinking and reasoning in making decisions.
Rhetoric is also evident when Billy defines a work of art with the plot of beginning, middle, and end. In this essence, he tries to simply convince the reader of the significance of the order and hence signifies that it is human nature to strive for such order in their life structure in order to avoid future complications. The beginning gives a mere clue to the mystery of life and the things we do not know yet. However, in the middle, things get a little complicated, and the events in the beginning start to unfold.
Collin’s poem can be viewed as a commentary on life as he begins by stating the creation of light, which depicts the story as about coming to life and how things begin to make sense. In the middle, people get frustrated and are faced with difficulty. This is clear when Billy says, “Nothing is easy anymore,” and then, in the end, compares life to falling leaves. In relevance to these poetic terms, this is how life goes on. He uses several literary techniques that tend to depict the big picture of life as a whole.
The subject poem is well structured, with clear divisions within the poem sections. The poet plainly utters that “this is the beginning” and “this is the middle” and hence emphasizing on a unique rhetoric style. This stimulates the reader to analyze the poem entirely and gain insights into a specific commentary on life and poetry. Additionally, the poet provides insights into his life experiences due to personal choices. Through the use of strong informal messages, the poet uses statements which focus on the author’s analysis.
In conclusion, the Aristotle poem by Billy Collins is structured with a beginning, middle and end, hence mimicking Aristotle’s principle guides, which aim at providing commentary on life. Additionally, the poet emphasizes the importance of order in life structure to avoid complications. The poet also explains in detail the things that human beings are bound to experience in life.
Work Cited
Collins, Billy. Aristotle. University of Pittsburgh, 1998.
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