Plight of a Poet
“You’ve got a college degree? What are you doing here?”
There was so much potential. What a shame.
The chance to fly, and to greatness be near.
Oh, but I did fly, just not how they wanted.
“You can always be better,”
Words hammered into my brain,
So to school I went—the best I could find.
Spent over a fortune, was left with a dime.
How they wished for a doctor, lawyer, engineer—
The noble pursuits, ways to keep the wheel turning,
But they instead got a poet, an engineer of the mind;
A soul of content over money or want.
What am I doing with my college degree?
Years of lab work, research, and papers alike
Lie on the floor, dust collecting like snow, while
I pour my heart onto paper by the open window.
January 7, 2025 at 8:18 am
I like how there are specific examples of careers, and how it displays the expectations the poet felt was thrust on them.
January 7, 2025 at 8:21 am
Julia! I think you did a great job fitting words into your poem like when you wrote “So to school I went—the best I could find. Spent over a fortune, was left with a dime.” I think this relates to many people who are trying to get a good education, but money is a big issue once you’ve graduated. I like this!!
January 7, 2025 at 8:28 am
I really love that you chose to do a poem. I think this prompt in particular made that very difficult. The way it’s worded at first glance reads a lot like dialogue or internal monologue which doesn’t necessarily prohibit doing a poem but it definitely makes it harder to start one. I’m particularly a fan of the line “A soul of content over money or want.” As an artist and at this point I think I’ve done enough poetry to consider myself an amateur poet, it’s speaks a lot of truth to what the experience is and will be like going forward. Artist and poets (and many other similar disciplines) don’t earn a lot of money for the amount of work that goes into writing, painting, drawing, etc. So they essentially have to be content with very little in order to continue enjoying and pursuing those fields. Extending beyond that line, the poem as a whole shows how conflicting that can be, especially when the people around you expect more from you or you expect more from yourself.
January 7, 2025 at 8:36 am
I love this poem; the rhyming scheme works really well. It expresses the reality of getting a degree and finishing school and how hard it can be to achieve what you want. The title fits the piece in how society praises doctors, lawyers, and engineers. When someone wants to be an artist in any way people look down on them, saying they won’t survive or it’s just a hobby.
January 7, 2025 at 8:40 am
I enjoyed how you connected having a college degree to the feeling of those who don’t “take advantage” of it. Highlighting the feeling of being less to those around you, causing doubt in even yourself.
January 7, 2025 at 10:26 am
I like how you developed the narrator’s inner conflict with where they are standing in their current life. I thought the last stanza was impactful, highlighting how years of hard work seemed to remain insignificant. However, it fueled insightful perspective in their life that will remain permanent.
January 7, 2025 at 11:51 am
I really like this poem, the whole thing is quite well written. I especially like the rhyme scheme and how it ties together these two lines: “So to school I went—the best I could find. Spent over a fortune, was left with a dime.” as well as how you describe a poet as “an engineer of the mind”. When you wrote “A soul of content over money or want”, did you mean content as in satisfied or content as in the writing that the poet produces?