Poem 8: Poetry Response

Pass/Fail - Linda Pastan

You will never graduate

from this dream

of blue books.

No matter how

you succeed awake,

asleep there is a test

waiting to be failed.

The dream beckons

with two dull pencils,

but you haven't even

taken the course;

when you reach for a book - 

it closes its door 

in your face; when

you conjugate a verb - 

it is in the wrong 

language.

Now the pillow becomes

a blank page. Turn it 

to the cool side;

you will still smother

in all of the feathers

that have to be learned

by heart.

I really enjoyed this poem and felt that in someway everyone can connect and get a meaning that they need in currently in life. When coming into the poem I thought it was going to be about high school and more like the poem 'We Real Cool' but I was obviously wrong about that. In the poem Pastan automatically starts off by saying You will never "graduate

from this dream of blue books" from that I knew it had to do with college and higher education. The poem goes on to talk about a nightmare that a student is having about a test, which this literal meaning is something that everyone can connect to during some point in their life. But as I looked for a deeper meaning the part that really stood out to me was "The dream beckons

with two dull pencils, but you haven't even taken the course". This just showed me that life is always going to give us different paths to take (in reference to the two dull pencils) and the roads we choose will never be perfect; they'll have their ups and downs dull and exciting moments but it's apart of life, life won't wait for you until your ready. 

This poems seems as though it has a negative connotation connected to it but it honestly has encouraged me. It was a bad year for me and I felt as though no college would accept me and i'm so wishy washy about things that I was nervous that I would be constantly be changing my major, but it took for me to fail two classes to finally wake up and realize that I need to not worry about the future and instead of worrying about what was going on around me to focus on myself. And after doing that and working towards what I want, I got into a  college, have a major I know I will love, and i'm going to be studying in a country that I've only dreamt about going and have a job waiting for me over there. This poem just confirmed what this year has taught me and encouraged me to keep pushing for what I want and never settle no matter how hard the obstacles that come my way seem.