Brian Smith

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

prose, I have effectively brutally beaten coffee to death.

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.

It’s definitely more difficult than I anticipated.

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

point, my poem was not only miserable, but short too.

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

sophisticated by drinking expensive coffee is not necessarily sustainable. “Inexplicable

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

drink, it matters not.

 “Perception is everything” is another line from the poem that reflects people’s decision

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.