Billy Collins poem The Lanyard is not only a nostalgic recollection of a childhood event, but a testament to the unconditional, selfish love of a mother.

        “The Lanyard” is a poem that seems to be divided into two main sections, consisting of the author’s thoughts regarding the past and the present. Collins’ narrative starts out in the present, when, while wandering around his office out of boredom, “ricocheting slowly off the blue walls of this room,” he finds come upon a long forgotten memory of a gift he made his mother once during summer camp. This nostalgic word, “lanyard,” brings upon a flashback of this memory, particularly when the time when he gave his mother the homemade trinket. What the man now realizes, considering this event once again years later, is how insignificant his present was in paying back his mother for her years of devotion. The narrator remarks, “I had never seen anyone use a lanyard, or wear on, if that’s what you did with them.” Despite the gift’s uselessness, the author, at the end of the poem, recalls being absolutely sure that the lanyard would be enough to repay his debt to her. The format of the poem, the switching from to past back to present, allows Collins to reflect on the contrast between his childhood state of naiveté, which allowed him to believe that he could ever repay his mother for her sacrifices, and his current understanding that his mother’s love is unrequitable, even for a thousand lanyards.

        The first person point of view used in “The Lanyard” is central to the poem, as it allows readers to experience one man’s personal reflection on a mother’s love. Collins narrates the poem through his own eyes, leading readers to recall their own memories that illustrate the unconditional love of a mother. The dialogue in the poem, which comes at the beginning of the fifth stanza, shows the not only the sacrifice of the mother, when she says “here is a breathing body and a strong heart, strong leg, bones, and teeth,” but also the willingness of the mother to provide these things. Within this dialogue lies an important theme of the poem- Collins is not just exemplifying the unconditional love of a mother, but the ease with which she gives her whole self to her child, never expecting anything in return.

        The conclusion of this poem shows the narrator finally coming to realize, however ruefully, that he will never be able to repay his mother, that no act of kindness or generosity towards his mother can ever equal the thousands of times she has loved and provided for him over the years. Collins illustrates the importance of memories because they help people compare their past beliefs and thoughts to their understanding of the present. Memories are unpredictable things that can be set off by anything- a certain smell, a song on the radio, or even, in Collins’ case, a dictionary word. Without memories of the past, we would not be able to appreciate the present.