In Context

Monday, January 12, 2009

Inauguration Poem

Poet Elizabeth Alexander was selected to compose and deliver a poem at President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Ceremony at the United States Capitol on January, 20, 2009. She is the fourth poet in history to be so honored. She delivered her poem after President Obama’s Inaugural Address. Accessed on 1.12.09 from http://www.elizabethalexander.net/events.html

Read "Praise Song for the Day" Inaugural Poem by Elizabeth Alexander from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-poem.html

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www.poets.org
~from The Tragedy of King Richard II (Act 3, Scene 3) (1623) by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/MobRic2.html

Yet looks he like a king: behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majesty: alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!


~from Moby-Dick (Chapter 96: The Try-Works) (1851) by Herman Melville (1819-1891)

http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mel2Mob.html

There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he forever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.


~from Love's Phases (1899) by Paul Laurence Dunbar
(1872-1906)
http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/dunbar/poetryindex/love%27s_phases.html

Love hath the wings of the eagle bold,
Cling to him strongly
What if the look of the world be cold,
And life go wrongly?
Rest on his pinions, for broad is their fold;
Love hath the wings of the eagle bold.


~from What the Eagle Says (1999) by Xi Chuan (born Liu Jun, 1963)

http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/crevel.html

Among men there are men who are not men, just like among eagles there are eagles that are not eagles: there are eagles that are forced to pace up and down the alleyways, and there are men who are forced to fly through the air.