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.
My brother asked me to write and read aloud a poem for his wedding some years back -- I composed it on hotel stationary the night before and read it aloud to a gathering of friends and family who'd just finished singing a Rod Stewart song together, which was arguably more embarrassing for everyone, but still a great deal of fun. :)
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/
My brother asked me to write and read aloud a poem for his wedding some years back -- I composed it on hotel stationary the night before and read it aloud to a gathering of friends and family who'd just finished singing a Rod Stewart song together, which was arguably more embarrassing for everyone, but still a great deal of fun. :)
Dare I ask which Rod Stewart song? Hopefully not “Maggie May” (“The morning sun when it's in your face / Really shows your age”).
You probably had the wherewithal to pull off that poem, but pity the would-be poet who can’t. Or maybe it’s just the thought that counts, as we say.
Lol - I think it was You’re in My Heart, but not the whole song, just a section they had printed up so everyone could sing along. :)
I still say they should have gone with Tonight’s the Night. That would have been epic.