This is completely normal.
A university professor naturally has a strong literary foundation. He can do very good theoretical research, but it is almost impossible to write a good poem. Why is this?
In fact, since the imperial examination system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the number of scholars has gradually increased. There are countless number of scholars, such as number one scholar, Jinshi scholar, scholar, and scholar. Many of them are well-educated scholars. They are the main ones who only read ancient texts and poems. , and there is no interference from modern knowledge. How many of these people can write a good poem?
Since ancient times, good poets have been rare. For example, among the most famous poets, the most famous one in the pre-Qin period was only Qu Yuan. Who can be praised for his poetry in the future? However, only a few people such as San Cao and Tao Yuanming were famous for their poetry. It was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties that a large number of poets emerged, but that large number was only relative to other periods. If this number is compared with the number of scholars in the entire period, the number is still pitifully small.
If you choose some of the most famous poets, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin, Su Shi, Xin Qiji, etc., you can see that they only have dozens of famous poems.
To give another example, the down-and-out scholar Zhang Jiyi wrote a famous poem "Night Mooring on Maple Bridge" and it can be remembered forever. The diligent poet Lu You wrote tens of thousands of poems in his life, but he is only famous for a few of them. It can be said that it is a joke that among the more than 40,000 poems written by Qianlong in his lifetime, he did not have any outstanding works. From this point of view, it is easy to write poems, but it is too difficult to write a good poem. It is so difficult that you can become famous with just one poem. It is so difficult that you may have written tens of thousands of poems and still not be able to choose a decent one. It is really not surprising that today’s university professors cannot write good poems.
In fact, it can be seen from the Tang and Song Dynasties that the emergence of excellent works requires the addition of time. The most outstanding poems of Tang poetry and Song Dynasty were in those two eras. Although there were occasional excellent works in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, they were far from being as good as those of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Those two dynasties are comparable. In modern times, poetry in the form of Tang poetry and Song lyrics has greatly declined. The only poems that can be called superior are the poems of the Chairman. Apart from him, it is difficult to find good Tang poetry and Song lyrics in modern times.
A university professor in ancient times would have been just an ordinary scholar. Not to mention the current era of declining poetry, even if he were placed in the Tang and Song dynasties, he would not have had the perfect opportunity or talent. He can't write good poetry either.