Was Robert Frost the last white poet to speak at an Inauguration?

[Hardrada]

Just curious. It seems a very long time ago since any poets at all spoke and a very long time for any Yankee like Frost.

[Trajan]

1. Maya Angelou

Clinton's first inauguration ...

er ... wait .... she isnt white ...

hmmmm .... why should she be white ?

She IS a human being and a poet ...

[hippiechick]

2. Maya's not white ...

n/t

[Trajan]

3. ?

There I go, answering questions before I read the whole post ...

IF I knew it was race specific, I wouldnt have joined in ....

[CBGLuthier]

4. well this should end the

aceptance Vs. tolerance debate in an earlier thread.


I mean honestly, poets are rare enough. Why should the color of their skin even be a point with any enlightened human being?

[BlooInBloo]

8. It's asinine that thread even started.... Some people just want to congratulate themselves...

... SOOOOOO badly, they can't help it, I guess.

[angstlessk]

5. why do you prefer white poets??

[Hardrada]

12. No preference intended. I was just thinking that one time there

were all these poets usually of English or Scots descent who were prominent and popular and now are totally obscure and it seems strange. Just a historical query.

[sarge43]

6. So, which Yankee poet did you have in mind?

By the way, Yankees can be black. In fact, they come in all colors. For example, one of this under one thousand population NH burg's Selectmen is black.

[MADem]

10. Crispus Fuckin' Attucks was the ULTIMATE YANKEE!!!!! Bless his heart....

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p24.html


In 1770, Crispus Attucks, a black man, became the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was shot and killed in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Although Attucks was credited as the leader and instigator of the event, debate raged for over as century as to whether he was a hero and a patriot, or a rabble-rousing villain......Attucks father was said to be an African and his mother a Natick or Nantucket Indian; in colonial America, the offspring of black and Indian parents were considered black or mulatto. As a slave in Framingham, he had been known for his skill in buying and selling cattle.

Brown offered a reward for the man's return, and ended with the following admonition: "And all Matters of Vessels and others, are hereby cautioned against concealing or carrying off said Servant on Penalty of Law. " Despite Brown's warning, Attucks was carried off on a vessel many times over the next twenty years; he became a sailor, working on a whaling crew that sailed out of Boston harbor. At other times he worked as a ropemaker in Boston.

Attucks' occupation made him particularly vulnerable to the presence of the British. As a seaman, he felt the ever-present danger of impressment into the British navy. As a laborer, he felt the competition from British troops, who often took part-time jobs during their off-duty hours and worked for lower wages. A fight between Boston ropemakers and three British soldiers on Friday, March 2, 1770 set the stage for a later confrontation. That following Monday night, tensions escalated when a soldier entered a pub to look for work, and instead found a group of angry seamen that included Attucks.

That evening a group of about thirty, described by John Adams as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs," began taunting the guard at the custom house with snowballs, sticks and insults. Seven other redcoats came to the lone soldier's rescue, and Attucks was one of five men killed when they opened fire.

Patriots, pamphleteers and propagandists immediately dubbed the event the "Boston Massacre," and its victims became instant martyrs and symbols of liberty. Despite laws and customs regulating the burial of blacks, Attucks was buried in the Park Street cemetery along with the other honored dead....

[Hardrada]

13. I was thinking, I guess, of the older school of New England poets

who don't seem to with us anymore, (R. Frost, R. Lowell etc.) Yes, I've spent time in Boston and do know about Crispus Attucks (and also have seen the 54th Mass. Inf. Regiment monument on the Commons done so well by St. Gaudens).

[sarge43]

15. As a matter of fact, the current US Poet Laureate, Donald Hall,

is a native of New Haven CT. If we're going to have a Poet Laureate, s/he should be part of the inauguration ceremony.

If you're ever up NH way, stop by the Saint Gaudens' Historical Site and see the original.

http://www.nps.gov/saga

[MADem]

20. Crispus wasn't a poet, but he inspired a lot of poetry...and he was

the most famous Black Yankee of his day, for certain! The first to fall, after all....

[Hardrada]

11. You're quite right. I think what I had in mind was a school of

poets of which Frost might have been the last example. New England had quite a few at one time, Emerson, Whittier et al. That's what I meant. (Mostly 19th century).

[Hardrada]

14. See reply below. I had in mind representatives of the older New

England school of poets and I think Frost was one of their last exemplars. Of course, I could be wrong. I guess I just miss poetry of any sort being honored on a national stage.

[Karenina]

19. So I guess you missed Maya Angelou

or simply don't consider her contribution worth remark.

Fifty years ago, I met Robert Frost as a child. I'd received honors for my recitation of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" at my elementary school. He came to the school to sign my copy of his book. I was SO THRILLED as I loved his poetry (as did my Dad who had encouraged me to memorize such works).
Our principal was a flaming liberal of her day and may have conveniently left out a physical description of the child so enamoured of his work. I only remember his startled expression, quick departure and disappointment that he had no interest in listening to me recite another of his poems; I really had the dramatic inflection down and KNEW it in my heart.

As I went back to class, I remember wishing that I had MY BRAIN and Janice Dorr's body, certain that he would have at least given THAT packaging a smile and a hug...

[Botany]

7. Robert Service @ 2004

There are strange things done in the midnight when it is glum
By the men who steal votes for gold;
The campaign trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The election nights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night Rove was very large ... as big as a barge
He cremated our votes .... our sweet Liberty.

[BlooInBloo]

9. Don't go pissing on reverse racism bullshit with *facts* now.

[SoCalDem]

16. You have to be a certain color to be poetic? Why on earth would it matter? n/t

[Hardrada]

17. Well, no, of course, it doesn't matter. My point was to note

a past historical phenomenon, that of the prominence of the New England poets. By the way, why didn't anyone ever use some of the good Beat poets like Corso or Ginsburg? I bet Carter could have done so.

[cgrindley]

18. He was the first and last even remotely mediocre poet to speak

at an inauguration. Although as far as I can tell, there have only been three in the history of the US. So being shitty isn't that big of a deal. Ditto poets Laureate (any earthly nation) with the exception of Ted Hughes and William Wordsworth.

[fishwax]

21. maya angelou isn't even remotely mediocre

gotta disagree with that analysis.

Who was the third (besides Frost and Angelou)?

[cgrindley]

23. You're right

She isn't mediocre, she's terrible.

Miller Williams in 1997.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. One more, it seems

Although he was an internationally known figure, Dickey's Georgia roots remained ever a part of his native South. This point was emphasized in 1976 when fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter invited Dickey to compose and read a poem for Carter's presidential inauguration.

http://www.libs.uga.edu/gawriters/dickey.html

It seems to be a Democratic inauguration thing.

[Hardrada]

28. Thanks. I had really somehow blocked that from my mind!

And I watched that inauguration too. Can't remember the poem either.

[Hardrada]

22. How about John Betjeman and Philip Larkin?

[cgrindley]

24. You're not serious are you?

Betjeman's not even as good as Southey. Larkin is an also ran.

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

25. Robert Frost was white?

<Johnny Carson> "I did not know that!" </Johnny Carson>

[Hardrada]

27. LOL!

[MLFerrell]

29. What the fuck difference does the skin coloration of a poet matter?

I think you might have been looking for this website:

http://www.freerepublic.com