A critique in two parts.

Come in, that warm spat we had is disappearing, and the snow is once again brittle crystals that slash through the air like the cold through our clothing. Lucky for all of us, I always keep the fire going and the blankets piled deep. I like the cold, it's easy to warm up in cold weather, it's hard to cool down in hot weather.

So in my poetry class, we read Elizabeth Alexander's poem "Praise Song for the Day" which is also being refered to as Barrack Obama's inauguration poem. And let's just say I didn't like it. So I wrote a review of it which I sent to my professor, as I thought we needed to do that for an assignment. Instead I got it wrong, we didn't, and I did the assignment wrong, we were supposed to just analyze the structure and imagery. Well first my critique.

This poem, written and read for the inauguration of President Barrack Obama, is a weak attempt at bringing to focus the nature of the struggle of African-Americans throughout the history of the United States of America. The point is the culmination of the civil rights struggle by shining a hopeful tone to the struggles of the past as the USA has elected its first black President. Throughout it Alexander uses images that flow back and forth, using language that could best be described as conciliatory, taking a happy stance on the “day.” The author starts by setting the scene; the general hubbub of a new President taking Office is hectic and filled with many different events that might take the attention of the audience. The solid mass of it is put forth as “thorns” and this imagery might be the strongest the poet uses. Next she moves to the people, black people who still mostly subsist in the bottom of the socio-economic scale, doing the menial, yet essential, jobs that have built and formed the country that all enjoy. Alexander fills these with the images she most likely grew up with, placing the role of the black people firmly within the hidden history of the USA. This action leads to the civil rights struggle, as she asks the same questions as before, those the dreamers and poets before her would have asked, “I know there’s something better down the road.” After this the song devolves into strange calls to different religions, to the marks of the struggle, and to a question that was best said by the Beatles: “All we need is love.” And from here the poet gives us the last semi-triumphant line of walking forward into a new day. While the imagery is nice, it seems like Alexander attempted to keep the scale of the poem down so as to not overshadow the event or the other noise. The poet effectively silences herself within her own extraneous noise, rather than putting any real feeling or power into her words. It comes across as weak, and only half-hearted.

So she said 'Very well written, but not what I asked for.' So I started to think about the imagery the poet used, and compared it with the new president. It is conciliatory. Not quite apologetic, but it has a quiet even tone that is very similar to the man himself. It calls forth the images of the stuggle of blacks but gently, almost half-heartedly, again like the man himself, as he is only half black. So I ruminated on these ideas and thought about the new president and the circumstances of his election.

First off, what skills does Barrack Obama bring to the table as the President of the most influential country in the world? Well we know he's GREAT at writing and giving speaches. He's a lawyer, he's been a community activist, and he's been a junior senator for the state of Illinois. Involved deeply in the politics of Chicago, and holds many great ideas about what should be done. And while all of those things sound great, he really does lack experience, and he's incredibly young.

He is very even tempered and has had to remind the press folks that just because he doesn't react visibly doesn't mean he doesn't have a strong stance, he's just mild mannered. So how does someone like this not only get elected as president of the USA, but also holds the highest approval rating of anyone going into office (A whopping 80%) and has created such visible and joyous hope in the people he is going to lead.

Well let's look first at this simple truth. The Democrats could have run a retarded monkey that constantly mastubated and still won the election. After eight years of war, economic disasters, and a president who appears to share some genes with the aforementioned monkey the American people would've voted for anyone who wasn't a republican.

Not only that but they built this fabulous media image for Barrack. The young senator from Illinois, uncorruptable, standing for all that is good and right, a culmination of the civil rights movement, comparisons to ole' Honest Abe. I mean WOW who ever came up with that bit of scripting really took advantage of everything available to craft a fabulous image.

But that's all just window dressing. It really isn't that hard to convince people of things as long as you get a great PR group going. So now they have to prove what they've sold. And that's the tough part. I'm of the mind that it's time to do what I've always been taught to do, hope for the best but plan for the worst.

Will Barrack be the man who changes the way the US works? Or will he land like the poem by Alexander, soft and ill timed, contrived and weak. Here's hoping for the best, but I'm not holding my breath.