“The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.”

American poet, Poet Laureate of the United States

Billy Collins is an American poet who served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He was a distinguished professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and retired in 2016. He was named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library in 1992 and served as New York State Poet from 2004 to 2006. In 2016, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also taught in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.