Academic Life a poem

[Mr. Rosewater]

Since I see there are other poets around this site...here's a poem I wrote when I was feelin' a bit cynical about school.

 

The House of Academia

 

Its got a high end paint job

that’s for sure

lines laser cut

colors expertly chosen

 

earth tones for the liberal arts

black and white for the sciences

 

behind the colors

within the rooms

words are prudently picked

and spoken to the proper audience

 

in the living room

the undergrads speak

excited words to everyone

 

in the kitchen

the grad students eat chinese take-out and

speak serious words

to the undergrads that drift in to cook Ramen

 

the PhD candidates lock themselves

in private rooms

and mumble

to themselves

 

In the windowless attic

The professors rehearse

Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Over and over and over again

 

as Elizabeth Taylor moves from room to room

observes

refuses to say i love you

and pours herself another drink

[Samedy]

Nice poem.

 

I understood most of the analogies in your poem, except the last one. Could you explain what you were trying to get accross with that last stanza?

[Mr. Rosewater]

The last stanza is just another reference to the movie "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" in which Elizabeth Taylor plays the daughter of the president of a university and she and her husband, played by Richard Burton, do nothing but drink and degrade one another. They needle one anothers insecurities without remorse or restraint while getting hammered.

 

The point of the poem was just me coming to the conclusion that the "best" and "brightest" in our culture also often don't have a friggin' clue. About love life or anything else.Taylors appearance symbolized (to me) the rock bottom of the upper classes and the intellectual elite. They too have the ability to disconnect themselves from everything and just drink drink drink and are often lost lost lost all the while maintaining an attitude of superiority.

 

Thanks for reading it and asking.

[Ellie2006]

I liked the poem too!

 

As someone also in the academia, I totally agree that having book smarts doesnt mean that you're the "best" or the "brightest." You got to be committed and passionate, for sure, and to a certain extent, a bit masochistic Cynicism also comes with the territory too. Hope you're feeling better about school nowadays.