Thesaurus By Billy Collins Summary

The author begins the poem with simple insights with the intentions of expanding the reader’s minds to see the true interpretation behind the strong use of metaphors “It could be the name of a prehistoric beast,” (Collins 1). Clearly the author doesn’t want or expect the reader top take the title Thesaurus, as some species of dinosaur. “Rising on its hind legs to show off its large vocabulary,” (Collins 3). The speaker uses the title itself as a make-believe synonym being theoretical dinosaur presenting its vocab; not words, but its actual structure. Shortly after those misleading metaphors, the author moves to the claim that is intended for the readers to understand. The speaker personifies the possible words in a thesaurus by giving them human-like personalities and allowing them to achieve humanistic actions such as “congregate” and gives those words traits such as “their relatives” (Collins 6). This allows the reader to begin to picture the claim behind the metaphors

“Father is next to sire and brother close/ to sibling, separated only by fine shades of meaning,” (Collins 15-16). Collins intends the reader to see that human beings psychologically connect themselves with others whether it is due to conformity, ego, or possibly even being intimidated by the thought of pure independence. The ideas and perceptions of the methods behind all the internal and psychological connection are up to the reader to interpret. Though all men were created equal, people are naturally unique and independent. Someone might have common hobbies and traits with another person, but Collins suggests that conforming and the feeling that you should go along with what the majority are doing is unnecessary. To be bold is to simply be oneself and unique from others in that everyone has their own light that will eventually