Poet, Quartet Dazzle At Inauguration

Following the world's most awaited oration - President Obama's inaugural speech - poet Elizabeth Alexander echoed the new leader's tribute to daily labor, his call for responsibility and his reminder of the sacrifices that made his election possible.

"Say it plain: that many have died for this day," Alexander, 46, said Tuesday during her brief reading, in which she also spoke out to the world about "love that casts a widening pool of light, love with no need to pre-empt grievance."

Alexander's recital at the National Mall in Washington culminated her own surprising journey, from academic and award-winning poet to a platform that only the tiniest number of her peers have been granted. She is just the fourth inaugural poet, following Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and Miller Williams.

The poem, titled "Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration," consists of 14, unrhymed three-line stanzas, and a one-line coda: "praise song for walking forward in that light." It will be released as an $8 paperback, 32 pages, on Feb. 6 by publisher Graywolf Press with an announced 100,000 first printing, a veritable fairy tale for most poets, but not for an inaugural work.

Angelou's "On the Pulse of the Morning," recited in 1993 at President Clinton's inaugural, was a million seller.

Ceremonial poems, commissioned rather than inspired, rarely make for historic literature, but Alexander avoided direct references to political issues, current events or to Obama himself. Her poem was a grounded, non-topical summation and joining of minute details and infinite themes, connections that run through American verse from Walt Whitman to William Carlos Williams, and through such Alexander works as "Fugue" and "A Poem for Nelson Mandela."

Alexander, wearing a bright red coat, delivering her poem in poised and determined style, offered a sketch of everyday work and interaction ("walking past each other, catching each other's eyes or not, about to speak or speaking"), and a Whitmanesque celebration of anonymous deeds:

Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,
picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
on the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,
praise song for walking forward in that light.

Williams, watching from his home in Fayetteville, Ark., said Alexander had well completed the inaugural poet's task - economy, simplicity, telling an American story with "some nicely surprising adjectives." He did have a minor criticism - not with the poem, but with the presentation.

"I wish she had something after the resolution of the poem to let us know clearly that it was over," Williams said. "Had she read it in my living room, I would have said, `Keep your voice up at the end, and nod to the audience and say, "Thank you," when it's over."'

Alexander, a professor of African American studies at Yale University, has published five books of poems - not including the inaugural text - and a book of essays, "The Black Interior." Before participating in history at the Mall, she witnessed it: She was just a baby when her parents brought her to the 1963 March on Washington.

Ma, Perlman Perform "Simple Gifts"

It was written by an iconic American movie composer and performed by a quartet direct from central casting - in front of a worldwide audience of millions.

It was a simple gift from composer John Williams.

The Oscar-winning composer of "Star Wars," "Jaws" and "Schindler's List" pulled together this five-minute piece to commemorate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president.

The quartet played what Williams calls "Air and Simple Gifts" immediately before Obama was sworn in. In fact, the musicians were still playing when, according to the Constitution, Obama officially became president - at the stroke of noon Tuesday.

The composition arranged by Williams begins with a soft introduction, played by Venezuelan-American pianist Gabriela Montero and Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Moments later, the violin, played by the Israeli-American Itzhak Perlman, enters with a sweet, pensive theme gliding over the lower voices. The cello then takes off and engages the violin in a lovely duet.

This warm melodic air - evoking a musical image of bald eagles soaring over America's terrain - cut through the chill of the 28-degree temperature that forced Montero to wear gloves.

Then, the clarinet, played by the African-American musician Anthony McGill of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, interjects with a familiar tune. It's "Simple Gifts," written in the mid-1800s by a Shaker composer and popularized by Aaron Copland in his 1944 ballet "Appalachian Spring."

In the face of the awesome tasks facing Obama, Williams' arrangement of the song conveys a joyous romp filled with confidence and hope. And the unsung lyrics bear this out:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.