As the Crowd Walked Away

When I reread Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem, its meaning struck me. She painted a picture of all different aspects of American life and brought it together with love. Her poem was meaningful to the situation and well thought out. It was also evident she paid tribute to Slam Poetry with her presentation and vague rhythm. The poem worked with the themes of the inauguration and President Obama's speech. From those standards, the poem was both successful and well done.

However, when the poem was read; I cringed. The presentation by Elizabeth Alexander was dreadful and seemed to speak to no one. The very slow and spread out rhythm of the poem did not translate well to spoken word. The way words and phrases were frequently broken made the theme hard to follow. This lead to the poem seeming overly artistic, and did not present its message at all. At the end of the poem it was obvious that most people were left dumb-founded; those that were left. So as the crowd walked away and Elizabeth Alexander was left on that podium speaking to no one, it was obvious that the poem did not work. Her poem was a failure because it did not speak to its audience. A poem that cannot convey meaning to its audience misses the point.