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 the 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,
messing 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.
Summary of The History Teacher
- Popularity of “The History Teacher”: “The History Teacher” is a remarkable poem by Billy Collins, first appearing in his 1991 collection, Questions About Angels. It presents a unique teacher who attempts to shield his students from the harsh realities of history, offering a softened, almost whimsical version of events. The poem subtly explores the irony of this approach and its unexpected consequences.
- “The History Teacher”: A Depiction of a Fictitious World: The poem centers on a history teacher who deliberately alters historical narratives to protect his students’ innocence. He reimagines the Ice Age as the “Chilly Age,” the Stone Age as the “Gravel Age,” and the Spanish Inquisition as a mere exchange of questions. Despite his efforts to present a benign version of the past, the students exhibit aggressive behavior on the playground, mirroring the very violence he sought to conceal. The poem implicitly questions the effectiveness—and perhaps the ethics—of shielding students from difficult truths.
- Major Themes in “The History Teacher”: Key themes include appearance versus reality, the dangers of ignorance, and the underlying, often unsettling, nature of human instincts. The poem highlights the teacher’s attempt to create a palatable past, contrasting it with the students’ ultimately untamed behavior. Through this contrast, Collins suggests that suppressing knowledge doesn’t eradicate innate tendencies; it merely masks them.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “The History Teacher”
Literary devices are the tools writers use to convey meaning, evoke emotion, and create a richer reading experience. Billy Collins expertly employs several devices in “The History Teacher” to enhance its impact.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words in close proximity. In lines like “when everyone had to wear sweaters,” the repeated ‘e’ sound creates a smooth, flowing rhythm and subtly emphasizes the comfortable image the teacher is attempting to create.
- Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. For example, in “for the playground to torment the weak,” the repeated ‘t’ sound draws attention to the violent action and reinforces the contrast with the teacher’s idealized history lessons.
- Allusion: Allusion is an indirect reference to a well‑known person, place, event, or literary work. The poem is rich in allusions to historical events—the Ice Age, the Stone Age, the Spanish Inquisition, the War of the Roses, and the bombing of Hiroshima—each reimagined by the teacher. These allusions create layers of meaning and invite the reader to consider the significance of historical narratives.
- Enjambment: Enjambment occurs when a sentence or phrase runs over from one line of poetry to the next. For example:
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.The continuation of the thought across lines mimics the teacher’s attempt to smooth over the sharp edges of history, creating a sense of flow and continuity despite the potentially jarring subject matter.
- Irony: The poem is steeped in irony. The teacher’s intention to protect innocence leads, instead, to a situation where students exhibit the very behaviors he’s trying to prevent. The contrast between the sanitized history lessons and the playground violence highlights the futility of suppressing difficult truths.
- Imagery: Collins uses vivid imagery to create memorable scenes. Phrases like “messing up their hair and breaking their glasses” and “flower beds and white picket fences” evoke strong visual images that contribute to the poem’s overall impact. The contrast between the idyllic domestic scene and the playground violence further emphasizes the poem’s central themes.
- Rhetorical Question: The questions embedded within the depiction of the Spanish Inquisition – “How far is it from here to Madrid?” “What do you call the matador’s hat?” – are rhetorical. They are not meant to be answered, but rather to illustrate the teacher’s trivialization of a complex and often brutal historical event.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “The History Teacher”
While many literary devices are also employed in poetry, certain techniques are more characteristic of the poetic form.
- Free Verse: “The History Teacher” is written in free verse, meaning it does not adhere to a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. This allows Collins to create a natural, conversational tone and to emphasize the poem’s content over its form.
- Stanza: The poem is a single continuous stanza, which gives the piece a unified flow and allows the reader to experience the narrative as an unbroken thought.
Quotes to be Used
The following lines are particularly effective in illustrating the poem’s themes and can be used to discuss the contrast between idealized innocence and harsh reality:
The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
messing up their hair and breaking their glasses.
This passage starkly contrasts the teacher’s intentions with the students’ behavior, encapsulating the poem’s central irony and raising questions about the complexities of education and human nature.