Blanco's Inaugural Poem a Highlight of a Great Day

On the one-week anniversary of Obama's second inauguration, I just wanted to note that Richard Blanco's poem was a finely wrought contribution to the day. (At least he didn't lip-synch it.) I thought it played into the theme of national unity that has characterized Obama since his big convention speech in 2004. Like a Whitman poem, it captured the fine details of American life, details that we are all familiar with, and tied them together in a unified vision. While the language was simple, it also had several nice turns of phrase: "pencil-yellow school buses," light that warms park benches "as mothers watch children slide into the day," "My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors,/each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day." I also liked the personal references to his own family being tied into the fabric of the country.

This may not be a poem that will live forever in the annals of literature, but it was perfectly fitted for the occasion and added to the pleasures of a great day.



You can read the text of the poem here.