February 6, 2009

Walking Forward in a Poet's Light

By RANDY MALAMUD

Elizabeth Alexander had some tough competition for her inaugural poem, "Praise Song for the Day." It was just one part of an almost overwhelming multimedia cavalcade of aesthetic, rhetorical, political, and historical experiences. It took its place among John Williams's exuberant music (also written for this ceremony) "Air and Simple Gifts"; Rev. Joseph E. Lowery's engaging benediction; the intense semiotic bundle of Washington crowds, iconography, and public architecture; and of course, the

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