Elizabeth Alexander’s poem today was a bit difficult for me, in part because I didn’t hear it all, but I wonder if I just need more in a poem than a praise song for the day. Here’s how it ends:
“In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.”
Did you hear the poem read? What did you think of it then or now when you read it?
Update: Many reviewers apparently didn’t like the poem either. David Ulin calls it “prosaic.” But her poetry books are selling well. (via ArtsJournal)
My wife, the English literature teacher, heard the poem and groaned.
Good for her.
I heard parts of it.
1. The way it was read was awful. I heard someone describe it as being read by a GPS device. I thought the reading sounded less human that that.
2. The poem itself was pap. It beat the audience over the head with it’s “poetryness.” If there is a Museum of Bad Poetry, similar to the Museum of Bad Art (museumofbadart.org), this poem belongs in it.
It’s OK, it was no more pap than the inaugural address itself.
It was delivered, I think, in the same spirit it was composed.
That is, not as a passionate celebration so much as a careful composition that tries not to screw up.
It also had a lot of good in it. I liked the first and third sentence about love. I even liked the structure, though it was a bit messianic for my tastes. It’s a good day to celebrate Obama, but don’t pretend that somehow his presidency is the triumphant endpoint of history.
Well, the delivery seemed to be similar to many other poetry reading or radio essays, and that tone emphasized the matter-of-factness of the material. I think it’s supposed to.
What confused me when I hear it was the line about words in the middle, and then at the end about any sentence begun. I thought she was saying words mean lots of things and we can string together anything we want. I wanted to hear praise to the Governor of the Universe and the Judge of all men or something like that.