Nasar Kamal
December 15, 2011
Period 3rd- AP English IV
TP-CASTT Of “My Number” By Billy Collins
Title
Paraphrase
Connotations
The title of the poem, “My Number” can imply a
great deal of many things. This may include a
telephone number, or a house number. It can even
simply illustrate numbers in general or refer to a
countdown.
In the poem, the speaker questions where ‘Death’
lies now? He ascribes it as a being whose
inescapable tendrils can reach out towards anything
or anyone without a second thought on whom it is
reaching for. He describes him as a gloomy figure,
whose alias is kept a mystery beneath a dark hood
and ponders him stepping out of a black vehicle,
removing his scythe from his trunk. He then directly
addresses him as he realizes that Death lingers in his
presence, questioning whether he had trouble with
directions and begins to talk his way out of it.
While we think of Death as obscure, Billy paints a
different picture. He ascribes to Death the ability to
“reach”, of “scattering”, “loosening”, “stepping”,
“shaking”, “removing”, “tampering” and most
chilling, “breathing”. These are not the qualities of
an obscure concept but one of physicality. A
tangible thing that is not only distant from you and
me – (1) “Is Death miles away from this house…” –
but also close enough to touch – (3) “…breathing
down the neck…” - Billy also attempts to illustrate
that Death can be specific and opportunistic - (2)
“…a widow in Cincinnati” – or random and
fortuitous – (6-8) “tampering with air brakes,
scattering cancer cells” and “loosening the wooden
beams…”. In “My Number”, Death clearly has no
preference for “who” or “how”. It’s not the face
that matters or the way it’s accomplished; it’s about
Death carrying out its insidious agenda.
It seems the speaker’s questions try to humanize
death so he can deal with him as a person who can
be persuaded, who will “find it hard to find” his
house (l. 10, 1), and who has ears and can hear him
talk. The speaker is not brave in talking to death,
but afraid. If personification humanizes death and
gives it life, perhaps taking away personification
can end its life? The personifying imagery makes
death more clearly person-like (having a car,
“stepping from a…car” l.11), bringing him closer
and closer in space and the tense shift from “Is
something so?” (first three stanzas) to “I will” (l.
17) to “I start talking” bring death closer and closer
in time. The hypothetical becomes a definite future,
and finally an ongoing present. At the end, the
actions cease, personification of death stops. Death
is no longer a person who can make arrangements
(l. 5) or park a car (l. 12). The pronoun for death is
Nasar Kamal
December 15, 2011
Period 3rd- AP English IV
Attitude
Shift
Title
Theme
no longer a “he” but a “this” (l. 17), a definite
vagueness that is here. The sense of doom
throughout the poem forebodes the failure to make
death human, and this last word speaks of the more
important failure: after personification, death’s life
continues.
The speakers attitude overall conveys a sense of
dread that is profound throughout the poem. He
thoroughly describes ‘Death’ as ultimately an
eminent figure that captures all. He is an
inescapable figure. This is best conveyed in the last
line of the poem: “..As I start talking my way out of
this.” (Line 17). It shows his apprehensive state as
well as his rejection of death. He has the will to live
and is fearful of death.
A shift is scene in Line 16 of the poem: “Did you
have any trouble with the directions?” The pronoun
change is significant as he subtly changes from third
person to second person, then once again to first
person. It shows he is directly addressing death, the
speaker. It also illustrates the sudden appearance of
death, literally giving meaning to the proverb that
death can occur at “anytime and anywhere.” Overall
it serves as an ironic point in the poem, with
Death’s sudden appearance after characterizing the
figure in the previous stanzas.
The title “My Number” can demonstrate the concept
of the speaker’s awaiting number in line as Death
approaches him. It also holds a degrading viewpoint
that Death is insensitive and does not determine
people by name or gender, yet by their number to
designate how far down the list they are. This
concept could also be an allusion to World War II,
in which through the duration of the Holocaust that
was prevalent throughout the war: Jews,
Homosexuals, Foreign Factions, etc. were all
assigned numerical values and referenced by
number. They did not share a name and thus
provided a degenerative scope as portrayed by this
poem.
The main gist of the poem is that death is prevalent
throughout the world and can happen
unsuspectingly, whether it ails the widow with the
broken heart or the lost hiker frozen to death in the
arctic tundra, a mechanical failure of roller coaster,
cancer, or even a car crash. In essence, it is
everywhere and anything. Thus, the theme is
acknowledged by the speaker’s dread at the
realization of this concept of anyone and anything.
Script of “My Number”
-Recital of Poem by transitioning through Photos.
-Analysis of Poem, line by line, based off of TP-CAST
Nasar Kamal
December 15, 2011
Period 3rd- AP English IV
Script
Poem Recitation: Part 1
My Number
Billy Collins
(1941– )
Is Death miles away from this house,
reaching for a widow in Cincinnati
or breathing down the neck of a lost hiker
in British Columbia?
Is he too busy making arrangements,
tampering with air brakes,
scattering cancer cells like seeds,
loosening the wooden beams of roller coasters
to bother with my hidden cottage
that visitors find so hard to find?
Or is he stepping from a black car
parked at the dark end of the lane,
shaking open the familiar cloak,
its hood raised like the head of a crow,
and removing the scythe from the trunk?
5
10
15
Did you have any trouble with the directions?
I will ask, as I start talking my way out of this.
Part 2: Poem Analysis
1st Slide of Analysis:
 Initially, what should be noted is the speaker’s use in personifying “Death” by
capitalizing the word and thus almost gives a life-like meaning to the concept of
‘Death.’ It now refers to the character with the name and leads to fright the
narrator of the poem by acknowledging that he is a person among humans whom
may strike freely at his own will.
 The speaker then moves on to a distant location of ‘Cincinnati’ as the narrator
continues to personify Death by giving it qualities of a human being with his
ability ‘to reach’. The act of reaching can further lead to an inference that Death is
grabbing the life out of a person.
2nd Slide Analysis:
Nasar Kamal
December 15, 2011
Period 3rd- AP English IV

By Breathing down the neck of a lost hiker, it acknowledges the close
proximity of Death and further enforces that it can be prevalent anywhere.
This is illustrated by a switch in his location from Cincinnati to the deluded
hiker in British Columbia. It now hints that Death is more than merely human
since he can cover such a trek in a short amount of time.
3rd Slide of Analysis:

Is he too busy making arrangements, cites a more fearful characterization of
Death. Noticeably, as the poem progresses so too does the terror in the
speaker as he describes Death in more dismal terms.