The Art of Drowning is a book of poetry by the American Poet Laureate Billy Collins, first published in 1995. John Updike described the collection as "Lovely poems—lovely in a way almost nobody's since [Theodore] Roethke's are. Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides." The title poem is the 11th poem in the collection, and it describes a man who reflects on the course of his life while he is drowning.
Contents
Dear Reader Consolation Osso Buco Directions Influence Water Table Reading in a Hammock Print Sunday Morning with the Sensational Nightingales Cheers The Best Cigarette Metropolis Days Tuesday, June The Art of Drowning Canada The Biography of a Cloud Death Beds Conversion Horizon The City of Tomorrow Thesaurus Fiftieth Birthday Eve On Turning Ten Shadow Workshop Keats's Handwriting Budapest My Heart Romanticism Monday Morning Dancing Toward Bethlehem The First Dream Sweet Talk Dream Man in Space Philosophy While Eating a Pear The End of the World Center Design The Invention of the Saxophone Medium Driving Myself to a Poetry Reading Pinup Piano Lessons Exploring the Coast of Birdland The Blues Nightclub Some Final Words
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