Was This Really Supposed to be a Poem?On the left is Elizabeth Alexander. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She has won a number of awards, published several books of poetry and teaches in the African-American Studies Department at Yale. She was the official poet for the Jan 20 2009 inaugural of Barack Obama.
Here is her poem (taken from the NY Times transcript) for the occasion with some commentary. The Poem is in italics and in red. The commentary in block font.
Praise song for the day.
I think that was supposed to be a title because the beat is really different from the other verses. Apparently songs cause time to pass or possibly cause the earth to revolve.
Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise.
Of course if its just catching someone's eye, it doesn't create much noise, unless I suppose you are walking in wooden clogging shoes or something.
All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues.
Eeeuu. This is even more disgusting than tongue piercing and besides that, why would ancestors on the tongue create noise or for that matter bramble or thorn or din. Isn't din somewhat like noise?
Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.
Those things cause noise??? If she wanted to talk about noise what about jack hammers or leaf blowers?
Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
Sure. I see people banging cellos on oil drums all the time.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."
After they take out their pencils, 5th graders get failed for writing compositions this bad.
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
What about if we caught each others eye (there is something about this in what I think is the first verse). That wouldn't involve words would it?
Aren't these actually words used in sentences that don't relate to the next and previous sentence.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."
This reminds me of the riddle, "Why did the poet cross the road?"; well it wasn't done to inspire anyone with real poetry, it was probably to collect another award.
We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Of course some people open their eyes when they walk but that's just crazy talk to some other people. It also could mean going from 'catching each others eyes' to 'bumping into each others eyes.'
Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.
Most glittering edifices use glass and steel rather than brick; also construction workers don't generally turn into maintenance crews. You might also give a shout out to authors like, oh say, Harriet Beecher Stowe or politicians like Abraham Lincoln but I suppose train tracks did some good also. Also, it should be "Say it plainly..." not "Say it plain" since the word after "it" modifies the verb "say". Finally, the "Sing the..." sentence ends awkwardly with a preposition.
Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Are you sure you want to praise song for every hand-lettered sign. Are some hand lettered signs held by rascists, anti-semites, etc.? Also "The figuring..." should be "the figuring", that is assuming this refers to figuring out hand lettered signs. If it doesn't then I have no idea what the phrase means.
Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.
How come the first aphorism was in quotes and the next two weren't?
What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.
Are we ready to pay royalties to Burt Bacharach?
In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
Of course it would be nice to also finish sentences. The phrases above, "Love that casts..." and "Love with no need..." aren't sentences. The phrase before that, "What if..." might be a sentence but, if so, it should have a question mark after it.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.
What light? You were talking about noise, then words, then crossing the road, then love. Which verse is about light?
Want another take. A New Republic Blogger Tries to put it in the context of historical poetry for similar events.
A blogger I've never heard of doesn't like the poetry and resorts to profanity.
A yahoo discussion group seems mostly very negative on this poem.
A Slate discussion group is also negative on this poem
A Trackforum group is most in the negative on this also.
The NYTimes collected a mostly favorable collection of reviews.
Associated Content gives the poem a D minus
Commenters at Rantburg compare it unfavorably to Eddy Murphy's "Kill my Landlord" sarcastic poem from the 70s (in response to my post).
A National Review writer finds the poem awful.
A columnist for the Asia Times finds the poem oxymoronic in part and otherwise awful.
