Polly Rolston has the ability to take a questionnaire and transform it into a 14-line Shakespearian sonnet.

Rolston, a 2007 graduate, is a professional poet and the creator of Polly Poetic Press, a business she started her sophomore year of college. She currently operates her business from Hawaii, where her fiancé, Sam MacRoberts, a graduate of the KU School of Law, is a practicing attorney.

Rolston, MacRoberts and Ann Hartley, associate director of the University Career Center, discuss jobs for English graduates and staying true to individual talents.

What was the inspiration for starting your business?

Rolston: I always liked poetry. I was kind of a poetry nerd in high school. I won awards for it. In college, I was looking for a way to make extra money and my mom suggested that since I was so good at writing poetry, it would be perfect if I could write poems for people. It kind of seemed natural that I would make a company out of it.

What is the creative process like?

Rolston: The form that they give me has a place for their loved one’s name and information, including physical appearance, nicknames and inside jokes — anything they want to tell me about the person. Then I take that information and I go through and find really good bits of it. When I am reading them, sometimes, there will be one really good line that I love. I have just about every Shakespeare sonnet that’s ever been written. I have a lot of poetry collected so I just go through and find words that are interesting words to rhyme so that the poem is unique to them.

How did you develop your talent for writing sonnets?

Rolston: You just get a feel for the rhythm of a sentence. I was an English major at KU and we talked about this all the time. You just know how a sentence is going to sound before you even know the words you are going to put in it. It’s kind of like there’s music behind language. You know the sound you want that line to make or you know the feeling behind it.

How long does it take to write one sonnet?

Rolston: It takes me usually about 30 to 45 minutes to write a sonnet. Sometimes I will get started on it and then I have to step away for a little bit because it is just not working or making sense. When I come back to it, it just clicks — this sounds good, this is what I should be saying.

MacRoberts: She writes sonnets fairly often for me. Sometimes they are very sweet and other times they are fun and playful. The first sonnet she wrote me was when she was studying for finals at 8 a.m. She had written it at 5 a.m. She sat down and wrote a fun little sonnet.

Are you living your dream? Why is there a stigma for English graduates to be able to use their degree?

Rolston: Yes, actually, it’s funny because being an English major there is always a joke about what you’re going to do with that degree — starving artist and that kind of thing. It’s just really nice to say that I am pursuing what I love to do. I’m doing it in a way that other people are able to benefit from my talents and my passion. It’s a good thing to know that I am not just wasting any talents that I might have on a job that doesn’t have to do with my degree.

Why do you think there a stigma for English graduates to be able to use their degree?

Hartley: That’s true not only with English majors, but a lot of liberal arts majors. Of course, you are studying in that field, but you are not being trained for a particular profession, like in professional schools, such as business and education. It takes some more personal effort to do that exploration and find the niche and what you want to do.

Do English majors have a lot of job opportunities? What field are English majors going into?

Hartley: I absolutely think so. It’s all about how you package and market yourself. Certainly English alums go off into a lot of different directions. A lot of them like to use their writing skills. If you have that strong writing background, that is a skill employers look for. It is a very marketable skill to have. I do see English alums going into the publishing field. Some of them go and get jobs in business. It really varies a lot.

— — Edited by Susan Melgren