Thursday, September 14, 2006

The American undergrad immortalized in verse

Student

The green shell of his backpack makes him lean
into wave after wave of responsibility,
and he swings his stiff arms and cupped hands,

paddling ahead. He has extended his neck
to its full length, and his chin, hard as a beak,
breaks the cold surf. He's got his baseball cap on

backward as up he crawls, out of the froth
of a hangover and onto the sand of the future,
and lumbers, heavy with hope, into the library.

-Ted Kooser

Is this poem: Utopian? Deluded? Stupid? Discuss.

3 comments:

Andrew Jones said...

Boo Ted Kooser. Boo cheap, easy verse. This is why nobody seems to read poetry any more.

Andrew Jones said...

Oh, and it's also badly written. And cliched. Back in my day, literature was supposed to illuminate common truths, not pander sloppily to idealistic stereotypes. Kooser is old, however- so we may forgive him for his wistfulness.

Am I a bitter cynic?

rebeccaonion said...

Is this the mug of a bitter cynic?