Billy Collins
Field: letters
Poet Billy Collins delivers a humorous, self-deprecating commencement address that resists conventional advice and clichés about hard work and the future. He explores how we relate to time—dividing perspectives into the pragmatic and the poetic—and argues that the present can only be accessed by slowing down, as poetry teaches. He champions the theme of carpe diem and gratitude for being alive, closing with his poem 'The Lanyard' about filial gratitude.
Key moments
- 01 Mocks commencement clichés and his own unlikely qualifications as a speaker
- 02 Argues the future never arrives and contrasts pragmatic versus poetic views of time
- 03 Presents a 'Top Ten' list of thoughts on time and mortality
- 04 Urges seizing the present and gratitude, reciting his poem 'The Lanyard'
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Billy Collins at Colorado College, 2008
A commencement address about poetry, time, comic resistance to advice, carpe diem, mortality, and gratitude for the present.
Speech arc
- 01Commencement cliches
Opening move
- 02Comic refusal
Speech beat
- 03Future problem
Speech beat
- 04Poetic time
Speech beat
- 05Top ten list
Speech beat
- 06Carpe diem
Speech beat
- 07The Lanyard
Speech beat
- 08Gratitude
Final charge
Opening: The anti-advice becomes the advice
Collins starts by mocking the conventions of commencement speeches, then uses the refusal of cliche to make the room attentive again.
Humor
Self-deprecation keeps the ceremonial pressure light.
Inversion
The speech resists formulas so the real lesson can arrive indirectly.
Attention
Laughter becomes a way to slow the audience down.
Collins starts by mocking the conventions of commencement speeches, then uses the refusal of cliche to make the room attentive again.
Time: The future is less available than it seems
He contrasts practical and poetic approaches to time, arguing that the imagined future keeps slipping away while the present asks to be noticed.
Pragmatic
Schedules and plans treat time as a managed resource.
Poetic
Poetry lingers in the immediate moment rather than rushing past it.
Mortality
Awareness of limits sharpens gratitude instead of only creating dread.
He contrasts practical and poetic approaches to time, arguing that the imagined future keeps slipping away while the present asks to be noticed.
Method: Poetry trains the habit of presence
The address turns poetry into a daily technology: pause, notice, hold contradiction, and let language restore contact with ordinary life.
Slowness
Reading a poem models attention against haste.
List
The comic top-ten structure keeps philosophy concrete.
Practice
Presence is something graduates can rehearse after the ceremony.
The address turns poetry into a daily technology: pause, notice, hold contradiction, and let language restore contact with ordinary life.
• Key takeaways •
Humor can clear space
Connects to time.
The present needs practice
Connects to carpe diem.
Poetry slows time
Connects to gratitude.
Mortality sharpens gratitude
Connects to poetry.
Seizing the day can mean thanks
Connects to mortality.
Closing charge
Collins closes with gratitude rather than conquest, using filial memory and poetic tenderness to redefine what seizing the day can mean.
Seize the day by being grateful for it
Carpe diem
The phrase becomes less swagger and more awake living.
Family
The closing poem turns achievement back toward unpayable gifts.
Thanks
Gratitude is the final form of attention.
Collins closes with gratitude rather than conquest, using filial memory and poetic tenderness to redefine what seizing the day can mean.
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Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording
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