I SAID when they handed me my diploma, I said to myself I will be good And wise and brave and helpful to others; I said I will carry the Christian creed Into the practice of medicine! Somehow the world and the other doctors Know what's in your heart as soon as you make This high-souled resolution. And the way of it is they starve you out. And no one comes to you but the poor. And you find too late that being a doctor Is just a way of making a living. And when you are poor and have to carry The Christian creed and wife and children All on your back, it is too much! That's why I made the Elixir of Youth, Which landed me in the jail at Peoria Branded a swindler and a crook By the upright Federal Judge! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...REMEMBERED WOMEN by CARL SANDBURG SCINTILLA by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE A MORNING THOUGHT by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL I AM NOT YOURS by SARA TEASDALE THE TRANCE by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE A PRESENCE by KENNETH SLADE ALLING THE VIOLET by ALEXANDER ANDERSON EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 41. LOVE REQUIRES NO ENTREATIES by PHILIP AYRES TO MISS KINDER, ON RECEIVING A NOTE DATED FEBRUARY 30TH by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |