"Morning" by Billy Collins

Billy Collins is an American poet who is now 73 years old. He served as the Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003. His poetry is extremely popular due to its contemporary themes and relatable content. He gained literary merit for his work starting in the early nineties with his book Questions about Angels. 

      Why do we bother with the rest of the day,
      the swale of the afternoon,
      the sudden dip into evening,

      then night with his notorious perfumes,
      his many-pointed stars?

      This is the best—
      throwing off the light covers,
      feet on the cold floor,
      and buzzing around the house on espresso—

      maybe a splash of water on the face,
      a palmful of vitamins—
      but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso,
   
      dictionary and atlas open on the rug,
      the typewriter waiting for the key of the head,
      a cello on the radio,

      and, if necessary, the windows—
      trees fifty, a hundred years old
      out there,
      heavy clouds on the way
      and the lawn steaming like a horse
      in the early morning.

          Setting has everything to do with how theme is developed in a poem. Setting consists both of temporal and spacial location, and in Collins' poem, "Morning," both are equally important to development of theme. Collins compares several temporal locations in this poem to show the superiority of morning. In the first few stanzas he questions the existence of the other times of day, such as the "swale of afternoon" or the "sudden dip into evening." He goes on to explain why the morning is the best time of day. He enjoys “throwing off the light covers, / feet on the cold floor, / and buzzing around the house on espresso.” These things are all related to the time in the morning when you just woke up. There is also the spacial aspect of setting, which is understood to be in the speaker’s house. This creates a feeling of intimacy between the speaker and the reader and helps them relate. The speaker also uses the last stanza to establish a dark, mellow mood, one that goes hand in hand with morning and clams down the activity of the scene in the previous stanzas. With “heavy clouds on the way,” the speaker makes the reader feel more comfortable being in the established setting. The repetition of espresso also serves to endear the reader, even if the reader does not drink espresso, by showing a lighter side of the speaker. Overall, this poem’s setting is conducive to a highly relatable and endearing experience for the reader.