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Meg Prichard
English 111
14 December 2009
Poem Reflection
Continuing with the lame theme of Starbucks coffee that carried me through English 111,
I wrote my poem about none other than Starbucks. I didn’t mean for this to be the topic of the
majority of my papers, it just sort of happened. In hindsight, I should have made a greater effort
to diversify my writing so I could have gained more from this class. But that’s neither here nor
there, because the fact that I wrote yet another piece about Starbucks remains. From poetry to
I decided to write a poem to reflect that last little bit of insight I have about Starbucks
mainly because I think I’ve exhausted every other acceptable medium, but also because it’s
something I’ve never really done before. In school I’ve been required to study poetry, but I’ve
never seen any a practical application in my life for it, nor have I been required to produce any.
Initially, I was going to write this poem with a noticeable meter and rhyme scheme, but
that quickly faded. I thought writing in trochaic pentameter would somewhat mask the repetition
of my writing, as well as accent my very limited knowledge of poetry. I wrote a few lines in
trochaic pentameter, but then I came to the realization that “Starbucks “ and “coffee” were the
only words that fit that stress pattern that worked with the rest of the lines, and even those were a
stretch. This was the basis on which I made the decision to write a poem, and when this failed I
turned to what I thought would be the path of least resistance: free verse. But I was mistaken.
Effective free verse isn’t merely a bunch of tangential thoughts mashed together with no
reason; however, my first draft was exactly that. It was if I had one central idea and then seven or
eight thoughts stemming from it, but that all worked independently of each other. That simply
wouldn’t do. Heavy editing was my only option. I ended up eliminating about half of the ideas I
had previously tried to present because they didn’t flush well together after extensive editing.
After I cut everything down that didn’t make sense, my poem was reduced to less than a quarter
of a page. I had eliminated the beginning, ending, and some of the body of the poem. At this
I came to the conclusion that I am incapable of producing a sweet poem about Starbucks
that is a decent length; consequently, my poem is rather short. It’s only 18 lines long, but I
believe it portrays its message well. The only allusion to Starbucks in the poem is within the
lines “Simple Seattle Pride” because it’s annoying to explicitly say “Starbucks” all the time, but
the message of the poem still revolves around it. There are two instances in the text that refer to
spending money that is not available; this is the underlying message of the poem. Over utilizing
credit cards and going into debt is a growing problem in the United States, and Starbucks is
contributing to it.
This reflects some of the culture associated with Starbucks because the people who
frequent these locations do so because they feel they should and are unable to differentiate
between needs and wants. Spending hundreds of dollars every year to feel edified or
Elasticity” is a line from the poem which reflects how people’s demand for premium coffee
remains constant irrespective to the price. Once customers start consuming Starbucks’ products
on a regular basis, the price starts to seem inconsequential; as long as they get their specialty
making when deciding whether or not to purchase non-essential expensive coffee when there is
no actual “need” present. People perceive they need the product, so they justify spending money
they don’t have on it. Without this justification, the same argument would seem ridiculous; why
spend money on something I don’t need when I don’t have expendable income? Within the
context of this assignment, my focus was Starbucks; however, I maintain that this is a systemic
problem present in many different sectors of American’s lives, not just coffee.