The story of Robert Frost’s appearance at John F Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961 goes something like this. Frost had endorsed Kennedy during his presidential run, and Kennedy had used an adapted form of the final stanza of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” as part of his stump speech. He reportedly would close it by saying “But I have promises to keep, / and miles to go before I sleep.” I am trying to imagine how savage the response would be if a presidential candidate tried that these days with any poem, and maybe Kennedy caught hell for being corny too, but that was a different century.
Great column that touches on a question that has long puzzled me. That is, why do we even do inaugural poems?
I’ll admit that Biden’s inauguration was the first I’d ever watched, probably because I had always been working during previous ones. But I was pleasantly surprised by Gorman’s poem, but also fearful of the reaction. I think many of us are so far from poetry now that the formal nature and role of her poem might have been off-putting, confusing, slightly embarrassing.
Same with many types of formal poems. When’s the last time you heard an epithalamium recited at a wedding, or an elegy at a funeral, or a valedictory poem at a retirement? I think these things generate a certain amount of discomfort in many people. Perhaps it’s too much like public prayer: it just isn’t done much anymore.
Incidentally, Patrick Gillespie over at Poem Shape wrote an in-depth piece on the use of rhetoric in Gorman’s poem. Perhaps the best rhetoric is that which doesn’t come across as labored or obvious, and I think Gorman did a pretty good job on that score.
So glad you will be publishing the whole series here. Looking forward to it.
Great column that touches on a question that has long puzzled me. That is, why do we even do inaugural poems?
I’ll admit that Biden’s inauguration was the first I’d ever watched, probably because I had always been working during previous ones. But I was pleasantly surprised by Gorman’s poem, but also fearful of the reaction. I think many of us are so far from poetry now that the formal nature and role of her poem might have been off-putting, confusing, slightly embarrassing.
Same with many types of formal poems. When’s the last time you heard an epithalamium recited at a wedding, or an elegy at a funeral, or a valedictory poem at a retirement? I think these things generate a certain amount of discomfort in many people. Perhaps it’s too much like public prayer: it just isn’t done much anymore.
Incidentally, Patrick Gillespie over at Poem Shape wrote an in-depth piece on the use of rhetoric in Gorman’s poem. Perhaps the best rhetoric is that which doesn’t come across as labored or obvious, and I think Gorman did a pretty good job on that score.
https://poemshape.wordpress.com/2021/02/12/a-brief-look-at-amanda-gormans-inaugural-poem/