The Parade By Billy Collins Summary

“The Parade,” by Billy Collins, is written in a first person point of view, while using the words “we” and “us” to create a uniting effect. “The Parade” is representative of life, so only using the word “I” would be selfish, and it would not create the “bonding of all humans” effect that Collins is trying to achieve. His point of view allows for him to explain the importance of uniting as a generation, but also stresses the significance of living our own life, as he states in stanza two. The external structure of the poem is seven free-verse stanzas, creating a total of 29 lines. There doesn’t seem to be much order to the external structure of the poem, it seems rather free, possibly representing the freedom that we have in life to watch “the scenery of the world” or to follow our “flag of desire.” The internal structure has more purpose. In stanzas one through three, Collins is reminiscing on his youth, showing the beauty that life once beheld, but stanza …show more content…
In stanzas one through three Collins’ tone is reminiscent; he looks back on “How exhilarating it was to march along the great boulevards in the sunflash of trumpets.” This marks the prime of his life, where everything seemed to be beautiful, natural, and ideal. Stanza four marks the shift from a reminiscent tone to a dismal tone. He realizes how life is becoming less and less free, and how there isn’t time to “rest on a wayside bench” or “study a bird on a branch.” He becomes obsessed with the inevitability of death, referring to it as “cliffs of mortality” and stepping “off the sharp lip into space.” Collins seems to be aware of where his life is headed and is feeling forced into this position- the young people are shoving him toward old age, and eldest generation seems to be desperate for his generation to overtake their generation as the oldest. As a united generation, “the old are tugging us forward, pulling on our arms with all their feeble