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 !
Spoon River AnthologyA website version of the book of poems, Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters