The first African-American and second inaugural poet was Dr. Maya Angelou, who vacations annually on the Cape, at Bill Clinton‘s first inauguration in 1993.  She was America’s second inaugural poet, both the first Black and first Woman.  Most people remember her reading as “The Rock, The River, and The Tree,” the repetitive line used as metaphor, though the poem’s title is actually “ON THE PULSE OF MORNING.”  Dr. Angelou was already historic in the fight for Civil Rights and acclaimed as a poet, but doing the inauguration made her name a household word.  Now she has a contract with Hallmark.

Miller Williams read at Clinton’s second inauguration in ’97, though most people don’t even remember it.  Mr. Williams is no less a poet than the good Dr., and I would highly suggest reading his works.  He is a fine poet with strong narrative skills and apt use of imagery.  So why is he forgotten?

Consider the political ambiance of the country when poets have read at an inauguration: Robert Frost was the first in 1961, when John F. Kennedy was sworn in, taking office following eight years of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Bill Clinton took office after 3 terms of Republican predecessors when he asked Maya Angelou to read.  Both Kennedy and Clinton took their respective oaths as young presidents from a party that hadn’t held the White House in double-digit years.  Words like “change” and “hope” and “reinventing government” were tossed around like wet towels, with all this hype behind a new young president, promising to make things better.  The poets served to pick up those wet towels and put them out to dry, in time for the inauguration and contribute to the alleged cleaning up of America’s woes.

Yes, Dr. Angelou did give a great inaugural reading in 1993, but the political weather played to her favor.  The proverbial winds of change helped fill the inaugural sails with a lot of hype.  I wouldn’t say that hype was a bunch of hot air, but you really had to read a very, very bad poem to mess up that gig.  It was the first inaugural poet the USA had heard from in 32 years.  For the first time in, well, maybe ever in America, the mass population was hungry, maybe even starving, for a poem.  And the good Dr. fed them inspirational nature imagery.

After Clinton’s re-election, an inaugural poem was still cool, but certainly not as pertinent or pressing.  Neither the inaugural poet nor the re-elected incumbent President was something new or fresh.  So Miller Williams, as fine a poet as he is, wasn’t original or unique in American’s minds.  Bill Clinton is the only president to have a poet read at back-to-back inaugurations, Williams the first poet to read for an incumbent.  With the last reading being only 4 years prior, the poet Williams hadn’t the hype that Frost or Angelou enjoyed.

Remember, reading at an inauguration made Maya Angelou a household word.  Will Ms. Alexander be blessed with a similar fate, or will her name fall into obscurity like Miller Williams?  Most likely, I believe, Ms. Alexander will be remembered.  Firstly, she is reading at a first inauguration, not a second.  That plays to her favor, as the country is again ripe for change and new leadership, with Americans hungry for a poem marking history.  Considering the current socio-political state of the Union coupled with the energy and intensity surrounding the President Obama inauguration, America the beautiful has not been this hungry for a poem to mark this history since our first Inaugural poet, Robert Frost, on January 20th, 1961.  

Robert Frost was 87 years old when he read for JFK, the first poet appearing at an inauguration, one could almost refer to it as performance poetry.  The poem was not read, but recited.  It was a very cold and windy January 20th in 1961.  Frost had actually written a poem specifically for JFK‘s inauguration, titled, “Dedication.”  But no one remembers, nor heard, that poem, at least not past the first few lines.  Due to the wind and cold, Frost’s eyes watered up and he couldn’t see the page, so he proceeded to recite a poem of his he had committed to memory, an old poem “The Gift Outright.”  It still fit the event, and the first poet at a US Presidential inauguration was a smashing success.

But Frost’s reading would be akin to Stanley Kunitz reading for President Obama this year, were he still alive, or Gerald Stern, who is very much alive.  Frost was one of America’s oldest poets, if not the oldest and already enjoying international fame as the face of American Arts & Letters.  He didn’t gain any fame from this Presidential gig, he got chosen because he already had it.  Angelou & Williams were known among literary circles especially, but the inaugural readings certainly helped their careers, although in different ways.  Frost enjoyed his honor a mere two years before his death.

And now we have Elizabeth Alexander, reading for the new, young President Obama, at an inauguration that makes history.  Barack Obama, the first Black President in US history, and a Democrat taking over after 8 years of Republican rule, up to face a task the size of which last seen when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office.  This inauguration, Americans again will be hungry for poetry, and Obama is supplying it, Ms. Alexander delivering.

Her poetry is that of constantly changing global histories and the way poetry confronts that.  She has written of the working class and their conditions.  Her poems are filled with apt observances from varying points of view with a dramatic voice and known for her eye to detail.  Her poems are persona and personal, and Janet St. John of the American Library Association says “Alexander has a musical voice that shifts from jazz-quick to bluesy to soulful lamentation.”  She has also written her own music.  Will she read her poem, or recite it as Frost did?

Elizabeth Alexander is Ivy League, a Yale professor, has published five volumes of poetry and made the final three short list for the Pulitzer Prize for her 2005 poetry publication, American Sublime.  She has won two Pushcart Prizes, NEA Fellowships and a Guggenheim.  According to her website, she’s the first recipient of the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship for work that “contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954,” and she has won the George Kent Award, given by Gwendolyn Brooks when she was alive, and who read at Cape Cod Community College in 1994.  About her work, former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove has said that Alexander’s “poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh.”  So the chances of her reading a bad poem are, well, none to none.  She will be remembered

The first African-American and second inaugural poet was Dr. Maya Angelou, who vacations annually on the Cape, at Bill Clinton‘s first inauguration in 1993.  She was America’s second inaugural poet, both the first Black and first Woman.  Most people remember her reading as “The Rock, The River, and The Tree,” the repetitive line used as metaphor, though the poem’s title is actually “ON THE PULSE OF MORNING.”  Dr. Angelou was already historic in the fight for Civil Rights and acclaimed as a poet, but doing the inauguration made her name a household word.  Now she has a contract with Hallmark.

Miller Williams read at Clinton’s second inauguration in ’97, though most people don’t even remember it.  Mr. Williams is no less a poet than the good Dr., and I would highly suggest reading his works.  He is a fine poet with strong narrative skills and apt use of imagery.  So why is he forgotten?

Consider the political ambiance of the country when poets have read at an inauguration: Robert Frost was the first in 1961, when John F. Kennedy was sworn in, taking office following eight years of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Bill Clinton took office after 3 terms of Republican predecessors when he asked Maya Angelou to read.  Both Kennedy and Clinton took their respective oaths as young presidents from a party that hadn’t held the White House in double-digit years.  Words like “change” and “hope” and “reinventing government” were tossed around like wet towels, with all this hype behind a new young president, promising to make things better.  The poets served to pick up those wet towels and put them out to dry, in time for the inauguration and contribute to the alleged cleaning up of America’s woes.

Yes, Dr. Angelou did give a great inaugural reading in 1993, but the political weather played to her favor.  The proverbial winds of change helped fill the inaugural sails with a lot of hype.  I wouldn’t say that hype was a bunch of hot air, but you really had to read a very, very bad poem to mess up that gig.  It was the first inaugural poet the USA had heard from in 32 years.  For the first time in, well, maybe ever in America, the mass population was hungry, maybe even starving, for a poem.  And the good Dr. fed them inspirational nature imagery.

After Clinton’s re-election, an inaugural poem was still cool, but certainly not as pertinent or pressing.  Neither the inaugural poet nor the re-elected incumbent President was something new or fresh.  So Miller Williams, as fine a poet as he is, wasn’t original or unique in American’s minds.  Bill Clinton is the only president to have a poet read at back-to-back inaugurations, Williams the first poet to read for an incumbent.  With the last reading being only 4 years prior, the poet Williams hadn’t the hype that Frost or Angelou enjoyed.

Remember, reading at an inauguration made Maya Angelou a household word.  Will Ms. Alexander be blessed with a similar fate, or will her name fall into obscurity like Miller Williams?  Most likely, I believe, Ms. Alexander will be remembered.  Firstly, she is reading at a first inauguration, not a second.  That plays to her favor.  Past remembered inaugural poets read when the country was ripe for change and new leadership, and that certainly holds true even moreso this year. 

Robert Frost was 87 years old when he read for JFK, the first poet appearing at an inauguration, one could almost refer to it as performance poetry.  The poem was not read, but recited.  It was a very cold and windy January 20th in 1961.  Frost had actually written a poem specifically for JFK‘s inauguration, titled, “Dedication.”  But no one remembers, nor heard, that poem, at least not past the first few lines.  Due to the wind and cold, Frost’s eyes watered up and he couldn’t see the page, so he proceeded to recite a poem of his he had committed to memory, an old poem “The Gift Outright.”  It still fit the event, and the first poet at a US Presidential inauguration was a smashing success.

But Frost’s reading would be akin to Stanley Kunitz reading for President Obama this year, were he still alive, or Gerald Stern, who is very much alive.  Frost was one of America’s oldest poets, if not the oldest and already enjoying international fame as the face of American Arts & Letters.  He didn’t gain any fame from this Presidential gig, he got chosen because he already had it.  Angelou & Williams were known among literary circles especially, but the inaugural readings certainly helped their careers, although in different ways.  Frost enjoyed his honor a mere two years before his death.

And now we have Elizabeth Alexander, reading for the new, young President Obama, at an inauguration that makes history.  Barack Obama, the first Black President in US history, and a Democrat taking over after 8 years of Republican rule, up to face a task the size of which last seen when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office.  This inauguration, Americans again will be hungry for poetry, and Obama is supplying it, Ms. Alexander delivering.

Her poetry is that of constantly changing global histories and the way poetry confronts that.  She has written of the working class and their conditions.  Her poems are filled with apt observances from varying points of view with a dramatic voice and known for her eye to detail.  Her poems are persona and personal, and Janet St. John of the American Library Association says “Alexander has a musical voice that shifts from jazz-quick to bluesy to soulful lamentation.”  She has also written her own music.  Will she read her poem, or recite it as Frost did?

Elizabeth Alexander is Ivy League, a Yale professor, has published five volumes of poetry and made the final three short list for the Pulitzer Prize for her 2005 poetry publication, American Sublime.  She has won two Pushcart Prizes, NEA Fellowships and a Guggenheim.  According to her website, she’s the first recipient of the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship for work that “contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954,” and she has won the George Kent Award, given by Gwendolyn Brooks when she was alive, and who read at Cape Cod Community College in 1994.  About her work, former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove has said that Alexander’s “poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh.”  So the chances of her reading a bad poem are, well, none to none.  She will be remembered.