Hahahaha!
Hahahahahahahah!
Haha! Hahahahahahahahahahah!
Okay, I've caught my breath now. This is a double-fail: bad poem, badly read. I found the transcript of the poem, and I read a few lines aloud and it didn't sound nearly so bad. It still was crap, but at least I know I can read crap better than someone qualified enough to read crap at a Presidential Inauguration.
Rush Limbaugh's comment was
Limbaugh asked on his show why poets always hide their message in symbolism instead of just coming out and saying what they have to say. Well, crappy poets get caught up in the symbolism, thinking that by being indecipherable people will think they're smart; good poets find striking, memorable images to convey a message. Sure, there's a simpler way to say it, but even if it takes more words, if you can associate a message with an image, it will have greater impact. You should understand this, Limbaugh, having spent so much of your early career as a DJ, and being such a fan of music. Music is poetry! Elizabeth Alexander's poem is garbage, though. Hilarious, insipid garbage. Limbaugh also said "If I can do it, it isn't art." Nonsense! Limbaugh has political discussion down to an art; no one can do what he does as effectively as he does it. Plus, even if quite a lot of people can, for example, doodle simple sketches, it's still art. This poem was definitely art, it just sucked beyond all measure of sucking. I could write a poem no one wants to hear, too, and it would still be art, just really crappy art.
Alexander was interviewed by Stephen Colbert the other night about her poem, but it was a disappointing interview. He didn't poke fun at the poem at all (of course, that was probably a condition of her appearing on the show, he could have been funnier about it had she not actually been on his show). Colbert jokingly asked "what is the difference between a metaphor, and a lie?", and instead of being eloquent, as you'd expect a poet to be, she didn't really say anything. This is a persistent trait of liberalism: symbolism is more important than substance. Colbert had to make her point for her, by saying "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day.... why not just say 'you're hot, let's do it!'?" In the right hands imagery and symbolism are effective tools. Shakespeare was those hands, Elizabeth Alexander is not those hands.
My favorite line from the poem: "Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice." Hahaha!
The other highlight was when the poem ended, and the audience only knew because she left the podium, because there was no other cue, no obviously concluding statement, no change in inflection from the reader, Ms. Alexander. I really still don't believe I heard what I heard.
