7/14/2023 0 Comments Trump poet laureate![]() In response to an informal poll from the Boston-based literary journal Ploughshares in August, Robert Hass, another former poet laureate, wrote that he would tell Trump’s staff: “I am not able to read my work at the Inauguration as I am currently quite unstable-delicate, deranged and dangerous. “Say it plain: that many have died for this day,” reads Alexander’s stunning poem for Obama, “Praise Song for the Day.” “Sing the names of the dead who brought us here.” Trump might prefer an ode to his many fine qualities-but if he decides to commission one, he’ll find that a number of prominent poets are already on the record vowing never to take part in his inauguration. Inaugural poems of the past have tended to celebrate the nation, its history, and the gravity of the occasion. One assumes Hillary Clinton would have continued the custom. More recently, both of Bill Clinton’s inaugural ceremonies featured poets-Maya Angelou and Miller Williams-as did both of Obama’s, with Elizabeth Alexander contributing a poem in 2009 and Richard Blanco doing so in 2013. The next president to mark the solemnity of the occasion with poetry was Jimmy Carter, who asked James Dickey to read not at the ceremony but at the gala following it in 1977. 20, 1961, that the 86-year-old Frost couldn’t discern the words he’d written on the page. Frost famously wrote a new poem, “Dedication,” to honor the day but ended up reciting an old one, “The Gift Outright,” from memory: The sun glared so brightly off the freshly fallen snow on Jan. ![]() ![]() Kennedy, who invited Robert Frost, in part as a thank-you for his vocal support. Only three (and a half) presidents have asked poets to perform this service. If the absence of a poet at this week’s ceremony symbolizes a literary gulf between Trump and Obama-who quoted June Jordan on the campaign trail and Harper Lee in his farewell address-it’s also not an unusual omission. ![]()
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