Poetry Live!

1. PoetryLive! A History of Poetry at Presidential Inaugurations

2. Will history repeat itself? • Three times in U.S history, poetry has been read at presidential swearing in ceremonies.

3. Reading Deeper… • How does this poem reflect the times during which it was written? • How does the poet make us think about the past? How does the poet make us think of the future? • What are the poet's dreams for the future? Cite examples. • Cite any examples of personification. How is personification used in each poem?

4. Robert Frost • Read his poetry for John F. Kennedy in 1961.

5. Frost this poem, "Dedication" for the Inauguration, but the glare of the sun on the snow blinded him (he was 86 years old), so he recited the next poem, which he knew by heart.

6. The Gift Outright The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England's, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become. -- Robert Frost

7. Maya Angelou • Bill Clinton asked Angelou to read her work for his 1993 inauguration.

8. On the Pulse of Morning 1 A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages. 2 But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face your distant destiny, But seek no haven in my shadow. I will give you no hiding place down here.

9. 3 You, created only a little lower than The angels, have crouched too long in The bruising darkness Have lain too long Face down in ignorance. Your mouths spilling words 4 Armed for slaughter. The Rock cries out to us today, you may stand upon me, But do not hide your face. 5 Across the wall of the world, A River sings a beautiful song. It says, Come, rest here by my side.

10. 6 Each of you, a bordered country, Delicate and strangely made proud, Yet thrusting perpetually under siege. Your armed struggles for profit Have left collars of waste upon My shore, currents of debris upon my breast. Yet today I call you to my riverside, If you will study war no more. Come, Clad in peace, and I will sing the songs The Creator gave to me when I and the Tree and the rock were one. Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your Brow and when you yet knew you still Knew nothing. The River sang and sings on.

11. 7 There is a true yearning to respond to The singing River and the wise Rock. So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew The African, the Native American, the Sioux, The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik, The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher. They hear. They all hear The speaking of the Tree. 8 They hear the first and last of every Tree Speak to humankind today. Come to me, here beside the River. Plant yourself beside the River.

12. 9 Each of you, descendant of some passed On traveller, has been paid for. You, who gave me my first name, you, Pawnee, Apache, Seneca, you Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then Forced on bloody feet, Left me to the employment of Other seekers -- desperate for gain, Starving for gold. You, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede, the German, the Eskimo, the Scot, You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought, Sold, stolen, arriving on the nightmare Praying for a dream. Here, root yourselves beside me. I am that Tree planted by the River, Which will not be moved. I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree I am yours -- your passages have been paid. Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need For this bright morning dawning for you. History, despite its wrenching pain Cannot be unlived, but if faced With courage, need not be lived again.

13. 10 Lift up your eyes upon This day breaking for you. Give birth again To the dream. 11 Women, children, men, Take it into the palms of your hands, Mold it into the shape of your most Private need. Sculpt it into The image of your most public self. Lift up your hearts Each new hour holds new chances For a new beginning. Do not be wedded forever To fear, yoked eternally To brutishness.

14. 12 The horizon leans forward, Offering you space to place new steps of change. Here, on the pulse of this fine day You may have the courage To look up and out and upon me, the Rock, the River, the Tree, your country. No less to Midas than the mendicant. No less to you now than the mastodon then. 13 Here, on the pulse of this new day You may have the grace to look up and out And into your sister's eyes, and into Your brother's face, your country And say simply Very simply With hope -- Good morning.

15. Miller Williams • In 1997 Clinton asked poet Williams to read for his second Inauguration. • Like Clinton, Williams is an Arkansas native.

16. Of History and Hope We have memorized America, how it was born and who we have been and where. In ceremonies and silence we say the words, telling the stories, singing the old songs. We like the places they take us. Mostly we do. The great and all the anonymous dead are there. We know the sound of all the sounds we brought. The rich taste of it is on our tongues.

17. But where are we going to be, and why, and who? The disenfranchised dead want to know. We mean to be the people we meant to be, to keep on going where we meant to go. But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how except in the minds of those who will call it Now?

18. The children. The children. And how does our garden grow? With waving hands -- oh, rarely in a row -- and flowering faces. And brambles, that we can no longer allow. Who were many people coming together cannot become one people falling apart. Who dreamed for every child an even chance cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not. Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head cannot let chaos make its way to the heart. Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.

19. We know what we have done and what we have said, and how we have grown, degree by slow degree, believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become -- just and compassionate, equal, able, and free. All this in the hands of children, eyes already set on a land we never can visit -- it isn't there yet -- but looking through their eyes, we can see what our long gift to them may come to be. If we can truly remember, they will not forget.

20. Will history repeat itself?Will poetry remain alive in 2009?

21. Inauguration 2009 Poet Elizabeth Alexander to read at Obama's inauguration professor of African American studies at Yale University

22. If asked, what poem would you write?

23. References • http://www.teachervision.fen.com/poetry/lesson-plan/4414.html?detoured=1 • http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/994.html • http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/frost/english/images/dedicat1.jpg • http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=AngPuls.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/inaug/mon/poem.htm