The History Teacher by Billy Collins Presented by Emily Trotter

The Poet- Billy Collins Born in 1941 Earned his Ph.D. in Literature at the University of California Professor of English at Lehman College, City University of New York 2001- Appointed pot laureate of the United States 2004- Appointed state poet of New York 2004- Awarded Walt Whitman Citation of Merit

The Poem- “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins Trying to protect his students’ innocence he told them the Ice Age was really just the Chilly Age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age, named after the long driveways of the time. The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions such as “How far is it from here to Madrid?” “What do you call a matador’s hat?” The War of the Roses took place in a garden and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan. The children would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart, mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses, while he gathered up his notes and walked home past flower beds and white picket fences, wondering if they would believe that soldiers in the Boer War told long, rambling stories designed to make the enemy nod off.

Use of Enjambment Enjambment is very apparent in “The History Teacher”… Line 1 ends with the word ‘innocence,’ which is the main theme of the poem Line 7 ends with the word ‘more,’ emphasizing the fact that there is much more to the lessons that this teacher is leaving out Line 15 ends with the word ‘weak’ and line 16 ends with the word ‘smart.’ These adjectives have been placed at the end of two lines next to each other to be compared The poem is ended with “rambling stories / designed to make the enemy nod off.” This is placed at the end of the poem as a direct comparison between history lessons and horribly boring stories

Historical Events Referenced To… The Ice Age: “the Chilly Age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters.” The Stone Age: “the Gravel Age, named after the long driveways of the time.” The Spanish Inquisition: “an outbreak of questions such as ‘How far is it to Madrid?’” War of the Roses: “took place in a garden” The Enola Gay: “dropped one tiny atom on Japan.”