INAUGURAL POETRY

Today belonged to the crowd.

and who among our poets wrote more powerfully of our own powers in the crowd than Whitman?

Here's my idea of a good inaugural poem:

The sum of all known reverance I add up in you whoever you are,

The President is there in the White House for you, not you who are here for him,

The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you, not you here for them,

The Congress convenes every Twelfth-month for you,

Laws, courts, the forming of States, the charters of cities, the

going and coming of commerce and mails, are all for you.

--Walt Whitman, A Song for Occupations