On the Pulse of Morning is a poem by Maya Angelou. She read it at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993.[1] With her public recitation, Angelou became the second poet in history to read a poem at a presidential inauguration (Robert Frost was the first, at the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy).[2] The public reaction to Angelou’s work was so positive that Random House issued a commemorative edition of the poem one month after its public recitation.[3] Angelou's audio recording of the poem won the 1994 Grammy Award in the "Best Spoken Word" category.[2]
Scholar Lois Pensky-Freud compared "On the Pulse of Morning" with President Clinton's inaugural address, given immediately before her reading of her poem. Pensky-Freud stated that the speech and the poem shared common themes, which included 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.[4]
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