![Angelou at Clinton inauguration](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Angelou_at_Clinton_inauguration.jpg)
"On the Pulse of Morning" is a poem by writer and poet
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...
that she read at the
first inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993. With her public recitation, Angelou became the second poet in history to read a poem at a presidential inauguration, and the first African American and woman. (
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
was the first inaugural poet, at the 1961
inauguration of John F. Kennedy
The inauguration of John F. Kennedy as the 35th president of the United States was held on Friday, January 20, 1961, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It was the 44th inauguration, marking the commencement of ...
.) Angelou's audio recording of the poem won the 1994
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
in the "Best Spoken Word" category, resulting in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadening her appeal.
The poem's themes are change, inclusion, responsibility, and role of both the President and the citizenry in establishing economic security. Its symbols, references to contemporary issues, and personification of nature has inspired critics to compare "On the Pulse of Morning" with Frost's inaugural poem and with Clinton's inaugural address. It has been called Angelou's "autobiographical poem",
and has received mixed reviews. The popular press praised Clinton's choice of Angelou as inaugural poet, and her "representiveness" of the American people and its president. Critic Mary Jane Lupton said that "Angelou's ultimate greatness will be attributed" to the poem, and that Angelou's "theatrical" performance of it, using skills she learned as an actor and speaker, marked a return to the African-American
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...
of speakers such as
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
,
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
and
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
.
Poetry critics, despite praising Angelou's recitation and performance, gave mostly negative reviews of the poem.
Background
When Angelou wrote and recited "On the Pulse of Morning", she was already well known as a writer and poet. She had written five of the seven of her series of
autobiographies
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
, including the first and most highly acclaimed, ''
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' is a 1969 autobiography describing the young and early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of charact ...
'' (1969). Although she was best known for her autobiographies, she was primarily known as a poet rather than an autobiographer.
Early in her writing career she began alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry.
Her first volume of poetry ''
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie
''Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie'' (1971) is the first collection of poems by African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. Many of the poems in ''Diiie'' were originally song lyrics, written during Angelou's career as a night ...
'', published in 1971 shortly after ''Caged Bird'', became a best-seller.
As scholar Marcia Ann Gillespie writes, Angelou had "fallen in love with poetry"
during her early childhood in
Stamps, Arkansas
Stamps is a city in Lafayette County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,693 at the 2010 census, down from 2,131 at the 2000 census.
History
A post office has been in operation in Stamps since 1887. The community has the name of the ...
. After her rape at the age of eight, which she depicted in ''Caged Bird'', Angelou memorized and studied great works of literature, including poetry. According to ''Caged Bird'', her friend Mrs. Flowers encouraged her to recite them, which helped bring her out of her self-imposed period of muteness caused by her trauma.
![Bill Clinton taking the oath of office, 1993](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Bill_Clinton_taking_the_oath_of_office%2C_1993.jpg)
Angelou was the first poet to read an inaugural poem since
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
read his poem "
The Gift Outright
"The Gift Outright" is a poem written by Robert Frost. Frost originally recited it at the College of William & Mary in 1941, but its most famous recitation occurred at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.Tuten, Nancy Lewis; Zubizarreta, J ...
" at President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
's inauguration in 1961, and the first Black woman.
When it was announced that Angelou would read one of her poems at Clinton's inauguration, many in the popular press compared her role as inaugural poet with that of Frost's, especially what critic Zofia Burr called their "representativeness", or their ability to speak for and to the American people. The press also pointed to the nation's social progress that a Black woman would "stand in the place of a white man" at his inauguration, and praised Angelou's involvement as the Clinton administration's "gesture of inclusion".
Angelou told her friend
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
that the call requesting her to write and recite the poem came from television producer
Harry Thomason
Harry Zell Thomason (born November 30, 1940) is an American film and television producer and director, best known for the television series ''Designing Women''. Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, are close friends of President Bill ...
, who organized the inauguration, shortly after Clinton's election. Even though she suspected that Clinton made the request because "he understood that I am the kind of person who really does bring people together",
Angelou admitted feeling overwhelmed, and even requested that the audiences attending her speaking engagements pray for her.
She followed her same "writing ritual"
that she had followed for years and used in writing all of her books and poetry: she rented a hotel room, closeted herself there from the early morning to the afternoon, and wrote on legal pads.
After deciding upon the theme "America", she wrote down everything she could think of about the country, which she then "pushed and squeezed into a poetic form".
Angelou recited the poem on January 20, 1993.
Themes
"On the Pulse of Morning" shared many of the themes in President Clinton's inaugural address, which he gave immediately before Angelou read her poem, including change, responsibility, and the President's and the citizenry's role in establishing economic security. The symbols in Angelou's poem (the tree, the river, and the morning, for example) paralleled many of the same symbols Clinton used in his speech, and helped to enhance and expand Clinton's images.
Clinton's address and the poem, according to Hagen, both emphasized unity despite the diversity of American culture.
"On the Pulse of Morning" attempted to convey many of the goals of Clinton's new administration.
Burr compared Angelou's poem with Frost's, something she claimed the poetry critics who gave "On the Pulse of Morning" negative reviews did not do. Angelou "rewrote" Frost's poem, from the perspective of personified nature that appeared in both poems. Frost praised American colonization, but Angelou attacked it. The cost of the creation of America was abstract and ambiguous in Frost's poem, but the personified Tree in Angelou's poem signified the cultures in America that paid a significant cost to create it.
Both Frost and Angelou called for a "break with the past",
but Frost wanted to relive it and Angelou wanted to confront its mistakes. Burr also compared Angelou's poem with
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," who ...
's poem "For Each of You", which has similar themes of looking towards the future,
as well as with
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
's "
Song of Myself
"Song of Myself" is a poem by Walt Whitman (18191892) that is included in his work ''Leaves of Grass''. It has been credited as "representing the core of Whitman's poetic vision."Greenspan, Ezra, ed. ''Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself": A Sourcebo ...
" and
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
' "
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" is a poem by American writer Langston Hughes. Hughes wrote the poem when he was 17 and crossing the Mississippi River on the way to visit his father in Mexico. It was first published the following year in ''The Crisi ...
".
According to Hagen, the poem contains a recurring theme in many of Angelou's other poems and autobiographies, that "we are more alike than unalike".
"On the Pulse of Morning" was full of contemporary references, including toxic waste and pollution. Angelou's poem was influenced by the African-American oral tradition of
spirituals
Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with Black Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the e ...
, by poets such as
James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peop ...
and Langston Hughes, and by modern African poets and folk artists such as
Kwesi Brew
Osborne Henry Kwesi Brew (27 May 1928 – 30 July 2007) was a Ghanaian poet and diplomat.
Biography
Brew was born in Cape Coast, Ghana, to a Fante family in 1928. He was brought up by a British guardian—education officer, K. J. Dickens—after ...
and
Efua Sutherland
Efua Theodora Sutherland (born 27 June 1924 – 2 January 1996) was a Ghanaian playwright, director, dramatist, children's author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist. Her works include the plays ''Foriwa'' ...
, which also influenced her autobiographies.
Critical response, impact, and legacy
According to Lupton, "On the Pulse of Morning" is Angelou's most famous poem. Lupton has argued that "Angelou's ultimate greatness will be attributed" to the poem, and that Angelou's "theatrical" performance of it, using skills she learned as an actor and speaker, marked a return to the African-American oral tradition of speakers such as
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
,
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
and
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
.
British reporter
Kate Kellaway
Kate Kellaway (born 15 July 1957) is an English journalist and literary critic who writes for ''The Observer''.
Early life
The daughter of the Australians Bill and Deborah Kellaway, she is the older sister of the journalist Lucy Kellaway. B ...
compared Angelou's appearance as she read the poem at Clinton's inauguration with the eight-year-old child in ''Caged Bird'', noting that the coats she wore in both occasions were similar: "She looked magnificent, sternly theatrical with an unsmiling bow mouth. She wore a coat with brass buttons, a strange reminder of the eight-year-old Maya Angelou who stood in a courtroom, terrified at the sight of the man who had raped her".
Gillespie stated regarding Kellaway's observations: "But standing tall on the steps of the Capitol, she was light-years removed from that terrible time, and America was no longer an 'unfriendly place.' Her poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' was a soaring call for peace, justice, and harmony. Capturing the hope embodied in the human spirit, it was a solemn and joyful reminder that all things are possible. She wished us 'Good morning' in her poem, and one felt as if a new day was truly dawning."
Angelou recognized that although "On the Pulse of Morning" was a better "public poem"
than a great poem, her goal of conveying the message of unity was accomplished. Poet
David Lehman
David Lehman (born June 11, 1948[David Lehman]
at poets.org) is an American poet, non-fiction writer, and li ...
agreed, stating that although it fulfilled its theatrical and political objectives, the poem was "not very memorable".
Poet
Sterling D. Plumpp found Angelou's performance "brilliant", but was "not as enthusiastic about it as a text".
Burr stated that the negative reviews of Angelou's poem, like the majority of the reviews about her other poetry, was due to their elitism and narrow views of poetry, which were limited to written forms rather than spoken ones like "On the Pulse of Morning", which was written to recite aloud and perform.
Burr compared the response of literary critics to Angelou's poem with critics of Frost's poem: "Frost's powerful reading served to supplement the poem in the sense of enhancing it, while Angelou's powerful reading of her poem supplemented it in the sense of making evident its inadequacy and lack."
Angelou's recitation of "On the Pulse of Morning" resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries".
The week after Angelou's recitation, sales of the paperback version of her books and poetry rose by 300–600 percent.
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...
had to reprint 400,000 copies of all her books to keep up with the demand.
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, which published Angelou's hardcover books and published the poem later that year, reported that they sold more of her books in January 1993 than they did in all of 1992, accounting for a 1200 percent increase.
The sixteen-page publication of the poem became a best-seller,
and the recording of the poem was awarded a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
.
The poem was featured in the film ''August 28: A Day in the Life of a People'', which debuted at the opening of the
Smithsonian's
National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in ...
in 2016.
See also
*
References
Footnotes
Citations
Works cited
* Burr, Zofia (2002). ''Of Women, Poetry, and Power: Strategies of Address in Dickinson, Miles, Brooks, Lorde, and Angelou''. Urbana, Illinois:
University of Illinois Press
The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic project ...
.
* Gillespie, Marcia Ann, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. Long (2008). ''Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration''. New York: Random House.
* Hagen, Lyman B. (1997). ''Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou''. Lanham, Maryland:
University Press of America
University Press of America is an academic publisher based in the United States. Part of the independent Rowman & Littlefield
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the ...
.
* Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). ''Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion''. Westport, Connecticut:
Greenwood Press
Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...
.
* Pisko-Freund, Lois (1994-03-01). "Poetry and Motion: Comparing Angelou's Poetry and Clinton's Inaugural Theme of Change". ''Florida Communication Journal'' (Florida Communication Association) 22 (1): pp. 35–42
External links
Transcript of the poem, via archive.org's archive of the USEmbassy.gov page*
{{Good article
1993 poems
Presidency of Bill Clinton
Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album
Inaugural poems
Poetry by Maya Angelou