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A Love Poem That Knows It’s Being Silly | Billy Collins - “Litany” (2002)
A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.
February Love Poem Series – Day 6: “Litany” by Billy Collins
Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.
Today’s poem is “Litany” by Billy Collins, a work that explores love through humor, exaggeration, and delightfully off-kilter metaphors. Collins transforms the traditional love poem by embracing its absurdity, reminding us that affection can be earnest and deeply funny at the same time.
After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing Collins’s parody of classical poetic flattery, why the poem’s mismatched metaphors make it strangely moving, and how Collins blends sincerity and satire to create one of the great modern love poems — offering context, nuance, and a bit of literary delight.
Originally published: 2002
Approx. runtime: 5 minutes
Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod
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By The PorcupineA daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.
February Love Poem Series – Day 6: “Litany” by Billy Collins
Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.
Today’s poem is “Litany” by Billy Collins, a work that explores love through humor, exaggeration, and delightfully off-kilter metaphors. Collins transforms the traditional love poem by embracing its absurdity, reminding us that affection can be earnest and deeply funny at the same time.
After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing Collins’s parody of classical poetic flattery, why the poem’s mismatched metaphors make it strangely moving, and how Collins blends sincerity and satire to create one of the great modern love poems — offering context, nuance, and a bit of literary delight.
Originally published: 2002
Approx. runtime: 5 minutes
Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod