In the poem “Poet in a Shade of Jade” the titular poet’s poverty is the target of the speaker’s ironic envy and ridicule.
The first stanza establishes that the poet (always addressed with “you”) is very poor and the speaker claims to be jealous of the way the poet is dealing with their poverty.
In the second stanza the speaker mocks that although the poet is invited to give many readings of their work, none of them are paid and in most cases the poet actually has to pay for all expanses.
In the third stanza the speaker makes the, presumably empty, promise to attend one of these readings in the near future (implying that they have not done so before) but foreshadows that they will be an unpleasant audience.
The last stanza begins with the thinly veiled threat that the speaker will gleefully expose the poet’s poverty to others, although it appears that the poet has put great effort into keeping it a secret. The poem ends with the speaker declaring that the poet must be under the influence of someone who is intentionally sabotaging their success (maybe even the speaker themselves).
