Ever wondered what it would be like to sit next to William Shakespeare on an international flight?

Today's guest has. He even wrote a poem about it.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.

Billy Collins is one of America's most well-known poets.

He served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003.

His poetry collections frequently show up on bestseller lists.

And how often can you say that about poetry?

His popular readings, three of which we've been lucky to host at the Folger,

are warm and laughter-filled affairs.

In Collins' poem, The Bard in Flight,

he imagines finding himself on an airplane,

sitting next to a time-traveling Shakespeare. In Collins'

telling, Shakespeare is gobsmacked by the technology of flight, but also mesmerized by the jazz

playing on Collins' headphones. It's a humane, gently irreverent poem, which is par for the course with Billy Collins.

For many years, Collins taught English to undergraduates at Lehman College of the City University

of New York. In the classroom, he tried to make poetry less intimidating by reminding his

students that the writers they studied were once living people like them.

In his poetry, Collins tends to begin with the ordinary stuff of life,

cooking, listening to the radio, going for a walk.

But often his poems go off from there in unexpected directions, making surprising connections.

In this wide-ranging interview, Collins talks about humanizing Shakespeare and other literary

titans. He also talks in depth about his own work and inspirations, and he reads from

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