She took a lot of shit for this from Rush Limbaugh and Jon Stewart. Elizabeth Alexander isn't exactly the most daring modern poet, but nonetheless she handled herself well. It's nice to continue to see poets getting a little more attention through mainstream outlets (like Lemon in Esquire), even if it is a poet that I wouldn't call a favorite.
There is of course that nasty business of the hoards of people leaving doing her poem, and probably being turned off forever to poetry readings and stereotyping all poetry as being just like this (because this, no doubt, wasn't really surprising anyone). And that's all unfortunate, because who wants to have that feeling when you see poets getting attention. We should all be glad for her and the great opportunity to read a poem in front of a couple of million people. That probably won't happen again for a very long time, and Elizabeth Alexander did what she had to do, and did a pretty good job with it.
1 comment:
Well said. I was getting sick of all the negativity I've heard about her poem and her reading. Nice to hear a positive take on it.
Post a Comment