Poem Analysis: The Names By Billy Collins

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The majority of adults today remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on September 11th, 2001. Billy Collins is a contemporary, American poet who was asked to write an occasional poem for the first anniversary of 9/11, by congress. Afraid that declining this invitation would damage his career, he accepted this great honor, in order to pay tribute to the victims from the fall of the Twin Towers. Collins awake early on morning and started to write the poem. He titled the elegy, “The Names,” which voices the honest truth for the victims of the attacks on World Trade Center in New York on September 11th, 2001. The first stanza clearly shows that the poem is written in first person, when “I” is referring to the speaker, and demonstrates