# Was the inaugural poem good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174 "2009-01-20T18:36:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/41 "2009-01-21T05:01:40Z")
If you’d like to read [Something Positive’s](http://www.somethingpositive.net/index.html)take on it. It’s a current link. So if you’re looking at it in the future, you may need to back up a few comics. I’ll post an updated link when it’s off the front page. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/42 "2009-01-21T05:09:15Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > shatneresque It’s meter, Jim, but not as we know it. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/43 "2009-01-21T11:54:28Z")
There were a couple of nuggets of ideas, but those were left in a rather unrefined form, and the rest was basically just someone does something, someone else does some other thing. Unconnected, meant to be evocative, but too sparse to accomplish this; if you want to paint a full picture by just hinting at details, you have to be very careful to select the right ones, otherwise, you end up with disjointed dots nobody has a clear idea about how to connect. The delivery was a good example why it’s best to enjoy poetry in the absence of poets. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/44 "2009-01-21T13:39:45Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > IMHO the “listing” was trite, because she didn’t give specific or vivid images: > > […] > > It’s like a high-schooler wrote that. A perfect description, thank you. Poetic lists are usually bland and resemble bad essays more than they resemble good poetry. In college I sat through enough of those to last a lifetime. She wrote two or three nice lines but they were drowned out by these lists and her very flat delivery. I do feel bad for her, though - she had a very tough act to follow and if they’d placed her somewhere else in the ceremony she wouldn’t have looked as bad. > [@Freejooky](#): > > I feel like it’s 2009; why do we have an inaugural poem? Has poetry been replaced by LiveJournaling or something? It was a weak poem, but poetry itself isn’t outmoded. ---
**Author:** ![spike404](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@spike404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spike404)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/45 "2009-01-21T14:32:19Z")
Nonsensical babble. I was surprised there were no X-rated lines, as in her previous work. Appreciating that kind of poetry, is like appreciating the wardrobe in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. Pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/46 "2009-01-21T14:32:52Z")
Just so it’s not a total pile-on – I liked it, though I agree that the delivery was appalling. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/47 "2009-01-21T14:51:11Z")
Delivery \*\*was \*\*awful, wasn’t it. Just horrible. I wanted to yell at her, “You know this! You wrote it!” I’m no student of poetry either (but I am a professional writer - technical writer) and I found her word choices pedestrian and uninspired. “Repairing the things in need of repair,” really? There were a lot of times during her reading that I’d anticipate the next word and be totally wrong, and her choice was just flat and obvious. Rereading the poem, it’s okay - with better delivery, it might be great. I do appreciate the modernness of it, but it could just be so much more evocative. ---
**Author:** ![Thom\_Yorke\_s\_Left\_Eye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@Thom\_Yorke\_s\_Left\_Eye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thom_Yorke_s_Left_Eye)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/48 "2009-01-21T16:38:48Z")
Utter shit. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/49 "2009-01-21T16:55:34Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > I found her word choices pedestrian and uninspired. Pretty much the same here. It wasn’t as _horrible_ a poem as some here think, but it was fairly uninspired and flat. No resounding imagery, no clever/memorable turns of phrase, no unexpected word choices, no new way to look at things. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/50 "2009-01-21T16:59:41Z")
I don’t get “free verse”. If you don’t have meter and rhyme, then why is it a “poem”? Just write some nice prose and read it in a straightforward manner. In any artform, if you can’t tell the difference between someone who is a “good” at it and a 5th grader, then it is just bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/51 "2009-01-21T17:03:46Z")
Drivel, IMO. But better than the Maya Angelou drivel from the Clinton inauguration. Frankly, unless you have someone who’s as good as Robert Frost, why bother with a poem? Bad poetry’s worse than no poetry. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/52 "2009-01-21T17:06:28Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > - because it’s a powerful art and perfect for the occasion. Couldn’t a Hallmark card suffice? ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/53 "2009-01-21T17:10:04Z")
The content was simplistic, and the delivery was soporific. “Woman. Wo-man. Whoooooaaaaah man!” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/54 "2009-01-21T17:12:06Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I don’t get “free verse”. If you don’t have meter and rhyme, then why is it a “poem”? Just write some nice prose and read it in a straightforward manner. Free verse often does contain rhyming, assonance, alliteration, consonance, rhythm, etc. While I tend to prefer some formalism in my poetry (Seamus Heaney being one of my favorite poets), I don’t like hard rhyme and I love verse that goes in and out of meter (like T.S. Eliot’s “Wasteland” which vacillates between irregular and free verse.) > [@](#): > > In any artform, if you can’t tell the difference between someone who is a “good” at it and a 5th grader, then it is just bullshit. Good free verse doesn’t look like the work of a 5th grader. See, say, Walt Whitman, for example. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/55 "2009-01-21T17:15:22Z")
I’m surprised at how upset I still am about that stupid poem. Like a bridezilla who is fuming the morning after because one of the flower arrangements wasn’t perfect. Get a grip, koeeoaddi, it was wonderful inauguration (with a really, _really_ dull poem). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/56 "2009-01-21T17:22:50Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > If you don’t have meter and rhyme, then why is it a “poem”? Just write some nice prose and read it in a straightforward manner. You can’t tell the difference between poetry and an essay or a short story if there’s no rhyme scheme or meter? I find that hard to believe. > [@](#): > > In any artform, if you can’t tell the difference between someone who is a “good” at it and a 5th grader, then it is just bullshit. Seems like everybody here can tell. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/57 "2009-01-21T20:34:47Z")
I didn’t see/hear it performed, but from reading it at the NYT link another Doper so kindly provided… **Ooooouugh**. That’s just _ **lame.** _ If someonone had gotten up and read that thing at any of the better open poetry readings I’ve frequented (and that is rather a few), the likely audience response would’ve been stone cold silence at best, and outright catcalls and razzberries at worst. There are times when I shudder to imagine what the holy art of poetry may come to before I die. Finding out that that piece of craftless pedestrian drek was honored by being performed (and lousily too, from what I’m reading here) at the most historic and widely observed Presidential Inauguration Ceremony America has ever held, was one of those times for certain. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/58 "2009-01-21T21:28:37Z")
It wasn’t even a poem. It was a _rambling_. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/59 "2009-01-21T22:39:30Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > The poem was shit. That was exactly my reaction. To expand upon the theme: it read like she realized at 9 am that she needed to get a poem ready to go by noon so she scrawled that out on a used tissue and didn’t rehearse it at all. Here’s a [direct link](http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp01202009.shtml) to the comic **Yllaria** mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174/60 "2009-01-21T23:54:48Z")
For those of you who didn’t catch it, the reading of the (heinous) poem can be seen here: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FHAL7l7HpI) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-inaugural-poem-good/482174.md?page=2)