I’ve always been interested in writing poetry. And when I saw Billy Collins, one of the world’s best poets, created his own MasterClass on the subject, I had to take a look for myself.
In this article, you’ll learn
- What MasterClass is
- How Much MasterClass costs, and if it’s worth the money
- Whether Billy Collins’ MasterClass is right for you
What Is MasterClass, and What Does It Cost?
MasterClass is a unique online learning platform that invites some of the most famous people in their respective fields to teach helpful classes.
Just take a look at some of the celebrities who’ve done courses for them…
- Gordon Ramsey teaches Cooking
- Serena Williams teaches Tennis
- Steph Curry teaches Basketball
- Malcolm Gladwell teaches Writing
- Steve Martin teaches Comedy
And that’s just to name a few!
When you sign up to take a class, you get the following
- A 2-5 hour course that you can watch whenever you like
- A PDF lesson booklet that has resources and activities
- Access to a discussion board with other students — and sometimes the teachers.
If you’re wondering how much all this will cost, well, you might be pleasantly surprised. The all-access pass will give you entry into ALL MasterClasses for either $15 per month or $180 per year.
In my opinion, that’s a great deal — especially for writers, since there are a bunch of good writing courses. One of which is from the poet, Billy Collins.
Who Is Billy Collins?
Billy Collins is a popular and prolific New York poet. He was even the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003! Then, he was the New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006.
So yeah, you could say he’s pretty good at his job.
Some of his most famous collections are:
- Flames
- Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House
- Snow Day
- The Art Of Drowning
He’s also had work published in a wide selection of prestigious publications including the New Yorker.
Will You Benefit From the Course?
If you’re an experienced or budding poet, you’ll love Collins’ course. It isn’t just the poetry-inclined writers who’ll take a few pointers. Any fiction or nonfiction writer will get a lot of value from hearing about how to structure your work to engage your reader and how to properly portray emotions in your writing.
Review of Billy Collins’ MasterClass
In Billy Collins’ MasterClass, you’ll find:
- Twenty lessons that cover a range of topics, including working with form, discovering the subject, the writing process, and how to use humor in your writing properly.
- Access to a downloadable class workbook that has over 90 pages of notes and activities.
- Excerpts from a range of Collins’ most famous poems. These are included in the course booklet.
- Access to a dedicated community of other learners who have conversations about their writing.
What I Loved About Billy Collins’ MasterClass
Okay, now onto the actual content of the class. As you can probably tell from the start of this article, there’s a lot to love about Billy Collins’ MasterClass:
- Collins the educator. Collins is incredibly engaging in what can be a hard topic to grasp. He explains everything clearly so that even someone who doesn’t have a background in poetry can understand what’s going on. This is key as there can be quite a bit of jargon in poetry.
- Explaining the relationship between the title and the first few lines. As a self-publisher, I’m always looking for ways to include keywords and ways to make my books stand out with their title. In poetry, Collins gives a great insight into the benefit of having a simple title that invites readers in and an opening few lines that are easy for the reader to see in their mind’s eye. While not ideal for book titles, this is a brilliant strategy for naming chapters.
- The WorkBook. The PDF workbook is a great addition to the course. The book has notes from all of the lessons, examples used in the classes, and activities you can do after watching to solidify your knowledge.
- The use of examples throughout. Billy Collins uses a lot of stories as examples throughout his MasterClass. This gives insight into complex topics and makes them easier to remember.
- Guests. One cool thing about Billy Collins’ MasterClass is the use of special guests. It was a great treat to see Collins chat with another famous poet, Marie Howe, about Collins’ poem, Death of the Hat. This was actually the best lesson — the two look at a great poem and analyze what makes it great. They spend a few minutes talking about the word “ashen,” and it’s way more intriguing than it sounds!
- Going personal in your writing. Being a poet, Collins takes writing inspiration from his feelings and experiences. This is a great trait as it gives his work an extremely authentic feeling when you read it, and Collins will show you how to develop this in your own life and writing.
- Using Humor. It’s so hard to be funny in your writing. Collins mentions that you can fake serious, but you can’t fake being funny. Collins uses humor quite a bit in his work and it’s great to learn ways to weave some funny moments into your poems and fiction writing.
Overall, most writers will be very happy with this course.
What I Didn’t Love
I am a fan of Billy Collins’ MasterClass, but no course is perfect.
The course will be best for someone who already has some experience with poetry. You probably won’t sit through this course and go from zero to your first amazing poem. But if you have at least some background, you should be fine.
What I will say though, is that this course is easily digestible. With short lessons, you can re-watch parts when the need arises, which is a big selling point for me. If you watched the course now and again in twelve months, you’d have a bunch of different takeaways because you’ll be a more experienced writer.
On the other hand, if you’re a very experienced poet, you may not get a whole lot out of this class either. Sure, you’ll get a few pointers. But I feel this course skims a lot of topics I’d love to dive into. That’s the negative point about generalized online platforms like MasterClass.
MasterClass compensates for this by having a topic cluster. For example, there are multiple writing courses you can take to improve your craft. So overall, you will become a better writer.
All in all, I found the course a very positive experience.
My Verdict: Is Billy Collins’ MasterClass Right for You?
With all of these types of questions. The real answer is, it depends…
If you’re a complete novice but want to get into poetry, you’ll find enjoyment out of this and a few pointers, but you may find it challenging to follow along. On the other hand, if you’re a poet or any kind of writer with some experience, you’ll definitely take a lot from Collins’ course.
You won’t become a better writer by taking a course. You’ll become a better writer by writing. And yes, courses like this are extremely valuable in giving you guidance and knowledge about how to write, but you still need to do the work.
So many people spend years reading all the blogs and watching all the courses but don’t start writing! You’ll learn a lot more by taking a course like this and writing than you will by sitting on the sidelines.
Ready to take Billy Collins' MasterClass and transform your poetry?
PRACTICE
It’s time to get practical about poetry. Take 20 minutes out of your busy day and draw on a past experience that has elicited an emotional response for you–these emotions can be negative or positive. Write down the circumstance and the feelings you associated with it, then come up with a short poem–just a few lines–that reflects your internal landscape.
Be sure to share it with us in the comments below!
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