In contrast to the earthy principles and simple rhythms of Obama’s speech, the inauguration poem is one of the worst pieces of jangling incompetence ever wrung from the English language.
I mean, what is that? Is it a four-yearly event, the same thing read out each time, or is it specially composed for each inauguration?
I mean, it shows some early promise, with some nice assonance in that ‘noise and bramble’, but rapidly goes downhill. It’s not a piece of poetry; it’s a grab-bag of doggerel as heard from a wild-eyed vagrant gazing through the railings at Speaker’s Corner. No much structure to it; no rising theme, just a near-random drunken walk through odd sentence fragments the author (I’d hesitate to say ‘poet’) thought might be interesting to say.
Whenever it was written and whoever wrote it, no hard work went into it, at all. At least inaugural speechwriters know they haven’t got much to beat.
Oh, thank you, for publicly stating the truth about that wretched poem! I shuddered when I heard it. In fairness to the poet, I decided to read it in hopes it might be better in print. It wasn't. The only thing this poem did for the inaugural was make Obama's mediocre speech seem good. So, I guess in that sense, the poem was successful.