TWR DOESN'T NORMALLY LIVE blog, but we thought today's inaugural poem warranted immediacy.
We don't have the full text of the poem in front of us, but we found it fine. It lacked punch, linguistic and thematic gravitas, but then again, compared to the drama and high rhetoric of the campaign, even President Obama's inaugural speech glided low. Both Alexander's poem and Obama's speech were measured. Neither went for the "Ask not" or "The only thing to fear" moment; they sought commonality and connection, they evinced humility.
Interestingly, both Obama and Alexander took this opportunity to imbue their moments with pragmatism. Neither were particularly poetic. They laid out plans, they sketched blueprints, they wrote menus.
The best moment in Alexander's poem may have been her catalogue of professions (teacher, farmer) who, in going about their business embodied the practice of everyday poetry. Echoing Whitman, William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes, Alexander also invoked Angelou toward the end of her poem, "On the brink, the brim, the cusp," suggesting the optimism sitting, not so patiently, on the nation's tongue.
We don't have the full text of the poem in front of us, but we found it fine. It lacked punch, linguistic and thematic gravitas, but then again, compared to the drama and high rhetoric of the campaign, even President Obama's inaugural speech glided low. Both Alexander's poem and Obama's speech were measured. Neither went for the "Ask not" or "The only thing to fear" moment; they sought commonality and connection, they evinced humility.
Interestingly, both Obama and Alexander took this opportunity to imbue their moments with pragmatism. Neither were particularly poetic. They laid out plans, they sketched blueprints, they wrote menus.
The best moment in Alexander's poem may have been her catalogue of professions (teacher, farmer) who, in going about their business embodied the practice of everyday poetry. Echoing Whitman, William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes, Alexander also invoked Angelou toward the end of her poem, "On the brink, the brim, the cusp," suggesting the optimism sitting, not so patiently, on the nation's tongue.
