Even before its official publication, Dr. Elizabeth Alexander’s poem for the inauguration of President Barack Obama is already providing a real-life specimen for creative writing classes to dissect and poets to debate.
The poem, which will be published by independent nonprofit Graywolf Press on Feb. 6, set off a wave of analysis and criticism on blogs and in classrooms across the country. However the poem is already widely available on the Internet.
The critics did not like it, did not understand it or did not like her delivery of it, according to a perusal of blogs and articles.
Some even regarded it as a flop.
“Two minutes after it was over I couldn’t remember it” ran one of the kindlier reviews of Elizabeth Alexander’s poem at Obama’s inauguration. Others were more direct. “Inept,” “horrible” and “trivial” fizzed the blogs,” reported The Sunday Times (of London) reported Feb. 1, two weeks after Alexander delivered her composition before millions of people at Obama’s inauguration.
Everyone appears to have an opinion, including leading poets, academics and their students.
Several educators contacted by Diverse defended the quality of “Praise Song for the Day” as free-verse poetry and its poignant message, as well as Alexander’s quiet, evenly paced delivery. Some note that it was a poem written for the occasion, a spectacular honor and a daunting task.
“That is incredible for someone to write a poem in that short a time with that kind o f pressure and for her to be able to approach the mike with the largest audience she could ever imagine and deliver the goods, and not stumble and fumble,” says Dr. Tony Medina, associate professor of creative writing at Howard University. “I don’t know why people can’t give her credit and appreciate what she did.”
Alexander, a professor of African American studies at Yale University, was only the fourth poet ever to read at a presidential inauguration, and the second Black woman, after Maya Angelou who read in 1993 at President Bill Clinton’s ceremony. The others were Robert Frost for President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and Miller Williams, for Clinton, in 1997. Alexander is the author of five collections of poetry, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist American Sublime.
