Reflections on "The Poem"

Elizabeth Alexander delivered an original poem, "Praise Song for the Day", at the inauguration ceremony. Hearing it, and later reading it, the poem reminded me of why so few of us pay much attention to contemporary poetry. I felt very little emotional impact or intellectual stimulation. It was a modest message with little rhythm and, of course, no rhyme. (I believe you get drummed out of the poets union if your poems rhyme.) To me, it sounded and read and looked more like a modest few paragraphs of prose (with a lot to be modest about).

In grammar school, we read (okay, we were forced to read) and recited poetry; I even remember some of those poems to this day. My guess is that little poetry is read or recited in schools today. I also suspect that Ms. Alexander's inauguration poem will do little to reverse that trend.

To get a flavor for it, here are the last seven lines of Elizabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day":

"...Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light."

Let's compare this with a poem written for an earlier president. I dug up the 77-line poem, "Dedication", that Robert Frost wrote for John Kennedy's 1961 inauguration. (Frost, when he got to the podium, was unable to read it because the sun reflected too brightly on his paper; instead, he delivered a different poem from memory. Try that one, Mr. Chief Justice.) The last eight lines of Dedication are:

" ...It makes the prophet in us all presage
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young ambition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday's the beginning hour."

Perhaps a new golden age's beginning hour began noonday January 20.

Comments

[SlithyTove]

Two columnists on HuffPo, Rosen and Lundberg, present opposing takes on the poem; I must agree with Ben Rosen. Garrison Keillor does as well in his understated midwestern way, saying there were a couple of good lines in there like "A teacher says, 'Take out your pencils. Begin.' "

I looked forward to hearing this poem with more anticipation than any part of the inaugural ceremony save the swearing in, and was disappointed in both. Fortunately Alexander did not have Justice Roberts read her work for her.

I am glad that poetry was given the place it was in the ceremony. I am sorry that the opportunity to serve the art and capture the imagination of millions who otherwise have little exposure to it was missed so badly.

Never mind Frost. I would have loved to see what WH Auden might have done with it. Imagine his "Epitaph on a Tyrant" as a reverse-inaugural poem for Cheney:

"Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets."

Sharon Mesmer has a funky parody of Alexander's poem in "Things I Hated About the Inaugural Poem" here:
http://virginformica.blogspot.com/2009/01/things-i-hated-about-inaugural-poem.html

[OtayPanky]

One of my favorite Auden poems, for sure.

[OtayPanky]

An excerpt:

"I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see."

That's not even good PROSE.

The last 100 years is full of many wonderful poems by many excellent poets - some with rhyme, and many in blank verse (more or less).

Regardless of the style or subject, good poems are characterized by powerful, vivid, evocative use of language. Nice sentiment is optional.

If we deconstruct this "poem", disregarding that it was meant to celebrate a historic day that made many of us weep for joy (and relief) - it is - simply put - dead on arrival.

I'm glad Obama and the team took a lot more care in selecting a cabinet, than in selecting an inauguration poem. And when you hear him promise that his administration will surely make mistakes, you can notate this as mistake #1.

[tlgeiger62]

I didn't get it and obviously it was very much forgotten since it was NOT covered at all anywhere. I wish the poet well but it fell flat.

[ohioan73]

I love how Frost compared Augustus to Kennedy.

I wasn't very inspired by Alexander's poem either and found it to be mediocre.

[paulita]

In line with the previous comment, I think she is writing in the language of the time. Contemporary speak is less complex than speech of the past, but maybe more complex in rythm. The poetry can still be beautiful if it they draw from their experience, history and the great writers of the past. It is a real genious to draw on these things and translate them to contemporary speech.

I just thought the delivery could have been a little stronger, not so strong as to be overly-dramatic as some do,, but a a little more powerful.

[propitiousmoment]

I liked the poem, although I only read it, did not see her read it. I definitely got an emotional connection from it. Watch her explanation of the form and the spirit of this kind of poetry on Colbert, Jan. 21. It makes sense in context. And I don't think Frost's grandiose rhetoric really fits Obama's persona or vision, although it was probably much in keeping with the Kennedy day and times.

[Davwbaird]

it was not good frost