"It's ironic that while I was a worker in Detroit, which I left when I was twenty six, my sense was that the thing that's going to stop me from being a poet is the fact that I'm doing this crummy work"

This quote by Philip Levine talks with the concept of the American Dream and also the struggle to achieve it. It is paradoxical that he was working in Detroit, a city that was as soon as a symbol of the American Dream, yet he really felt that his crappy work was preventing him from achieving his very own desire for coming to be a poet. This quote talks to the suggestion that the American Dream is not always achievable, and that sometimes the conditions of life can avoid us from achieving our objectives. It additionally talks to the suggestion that effort as well as commitment are not always sufficient to attain success. Levine's quote is a tip that in some cases life can be unreasonable which we should be prepared to face the challenges that come our means.