Maya Angelou Discusses the Poem She Wrote for 1993 Presidential
Inauguration
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=4518
General Information
Source:
Creator:
NBC Today Show
Bryant Gumbel
Resource Type:
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
01/19/1993
01/19/1993
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video News Report
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
1993
00:08:15
Description
Maya Angelou discusses the poem she wrote for the inauguration of Bill Clinton on 1993, which had to
express the love she has for America.
Keywords
Maya Angelou, On The Pulse of Morning, Poet, Inauguration, Clinton, Washington, D.C., Poetry, Poem,
Robert Frost, James Dickey, 'The Gift Outright', John F. Kennedy, Inspiration, Performance, Writing,
How to write, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Citation
MLA
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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"Maya Angelou Discusses the Poem She Wrote for 1993 Presidential Inauguration." Bryant Gumbel,
correspondent. NBC Today Show. NBCUniversal Media. 19 Jan. 1993. NBC Learn. Web. 29 March 2015
APA
Gumbel, B. (Reporter). 1993, January 19. Maya Angelou Discusses the Poem She Wrote for 1993
Presidential Inauguration. [Television series episode]. NBC Today Show. Retrieved from
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=4518
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Maya Angelou Discusses the Poem She Wrote for 1993 Presidential Inauguration" NBC Today Show,
New York, NY: NBC Universal, 01/19/1993. Accessed Sun Mar 29 2015 from NBC Learn:
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=4518
Transcript
Maya Angelou Discusses The Poem she will Read at President Clinton's Inauguration
BRYANT GUMBEL, co-host (Washington, DC):
Though purely coincidental, the inclusion of poetry in the inauguration
festivities would seem to be on a 16-year cycle. The last time that an
American poet was commissioned to write a poem for a new president, James Dickey did it in 1977, on
the eve of Jimmy Carter's swearing in. And 16 years before that, in 1961, John F. Kennedy asked Robert
Frost to compose and recite at his inauguration, a task made more difficult and memorable by the blinding
sunlight of that day. Undaunted, Frost put aside his poem and recited from memory an earlier one titled
"The Gift Outright."
Mr. ROBERT FROST: (From file footage) The land was ours before we were
the land's. She was our land more than 100 years before we were her
people. She was ours in Massachusetts and Virginia, but we were England, still colonial, possessing what
we still were unposessed by, possessed by what we now no more possess. Something we were
withholding made us weep until we found out that it was ourselves we were withholding from our land of
living and forthwith found salvation, salvation and surrender. Such as we were, we gave ourselves
outright the deed of gift, with many deeds of war to the land vaguely realizing westward but still
unstoried, heartless, unenhanced, such as she was, such as she would become, has become. And I--and
for this occasion, let me change that to what she will become.
GUMBEL: Now, on Wednesday, it will be Maya Angelou's turn to make
history, where at the special request of Bill Clinton, she reads her
inaugural poem to the nation.
Maya, how you doing? Good morning.
Ms. MAYA ANGELOU: I'm doing well. And you're looking good.
GUMBEL: Oh, that's good of you to say. Thank you.
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Ms. ANGELOU: That's the truth. Is a--my sister said, `The truth is a
stubborn fact.'
GUMBEL: I know you're a big--you were a big fan of Robert Frost.
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes.
GUMBEL: You love poetry so much.
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes.
GUMBEL: Why do you think Bill Clinton picked you?
Ms. ANGELOU: Well, I'm told he likes my poetry. That's one thing. I
think he asked me to write because in all my books--in 11 books and a
number of screenplays and stage plays and lyrics for songs, I try to say
that human beings are more alike than we are unalike. And I think that
he knows that and knew that and would have then asked me to--to write,
knowing I would be a part of the reunion concept.
GUMBEL: And that's--and that's kind of the marching orders he gave you.
Right?
Ms. ANGELOU: Well, he didn't. He was really wonderful.
GUMBEL: Really? He just laid it out said, `Blank canvas--do what you
like'?
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes, yes. And said there's no time limit. I want people
not to be afraid, though, because I know everyone wants the brief speech,
you know. So--so mine is going to be about three, three and a half
minutes.
GUMBEL: Yeah?
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes.
GUMBEL: When you--when you got into it, how--how tough was it? I mean,
how tough was this one to wrestle with versus other things that you have
written?
Ms. ANGELOU: It's very hard. It's very hard to write poetry. It's very
hard to write well anything prose.
GUMBEL: Not for you.
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes, very hard. Nathaniel Hawthorne said, `Easy reading is
damned-hard writing.' Believe it.
GUMBEL: I know from the past times that we've had together that you--when
it comes time for you to write, you get yourself a hotel room...
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes.
GUMBEL: ...a deck of cards...
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes.
GUMBEL: ...a Bible...
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes.
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GUMBEL: ...and a bottle of sherry--not necessarily in that order.
Ms. ANGELOU: And "Roget's Thesaurus".
GUMBEL: And a "Roget's Thesaurus".
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes.
GUMBEL: Did--was all of that included this time around, too?
Ms. ANGELOU: Absolutely.
GUMBEL: And how much did you have to wrestle with this one?
Ms. ANGELOU: I had to bring down about six books of yellow pads--six
yellow pads of notes down to a few lines. I had to try to say what I
think about my country, which I love and with which I often become very
angry, and I had to say all of that in three-and-a-half minutes--in just
few lines--to say it poetically and to say it honestly. It's one thing
to have insight. It's another thing to have the courage to say it. And
the third thing is to have the artistry to make it beautiful.
GUMBEL: You get--you get an awful lot of mail. I understand you got a
lot of unsolicited advice on what to include in this poem, huh?
Ms. ANGELOU: Everything.
GUMBEL: What kind of suggestions?
Ms. ANGELOU: People have come to my door.
GUMBEL: Really?
Ms. ANGELOU: Really.
GUMBEL: They knock on your door and say, `Hey! Include this.'
Ms. ANGELOU: Just the day before yesterday, I was having a interview
with some London people--ITN, and people knocked at the door and just
came in and said--and my--my woman who looks after the house--the
housekeeper said, `Oh, you can't do that.' And my sister said, `No, no.
You can't go.' They said, `We have to tell her what to say. We want her
to tell Bill Clinton exactly what we expect.'
So finally--and it's amazing. I get on the planes, and people pull me.
They pull my clothes. `Miss Angelou--Dr. Angelou, finish your poem
yet?' `No, not yet.'
GUMBEL: How much have you been tinkering with it--I mean, since
you--since you walked out of the hotel room? Do you fiddle with it every
day?
Ms. ANGELOU: This morning, about 5:00, I was trying to...
GUMBEL: Really? You're still working on it?
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes. I was trying to see the--I've not said before, but
the title of the poem is "On the Pulse of Morning." And I had had it, "On
the Pulse of a Morning." About 4:00 this morning, I changed that.
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GUMBEL: But it still might get changed by the time you deliver it in the
morning?
Ms. ANGELOU: This is true. This is true.
GUMBEL: You at all concerned--I mean, besides the writing of it, comes
the recitation, the delivery. Are you at all concerned about--about your
ability to--to control your emotions when it comes time to--to deliver
it?
Ms. ANGELOU: Yes. I'm--I'm praying a lot because the--it is an emotion
poem. It is from my people. It's for people, for human beings, for
Americans. And it is also for my mom, who--who is dead and whose
birthday is today and who told me, `Listen, baby. Don't worry. You're
going to be big.'
GUMBEL: She was right. And--and what about--what if happens to you--to
Robert Frost happens to you? Do you know this one by heart?
Ms ANGELOU: No.
GUMBEL: No?
Ms. ANGELOU: No.
GUMBEL: Could you just pull one out of the air and do it?
Ms. ANGELOU: I probably could find something.
GUMBEL: You don't want to.
Ms. ANGELOU: But I want to say this one because I have written this
particularly for my new president and for--for my people--for the America people. I want us to look at
each other. I really want us to look. So often, we--we find someplace right up above the--the eyebrow
line, and we don't look into each other's eyes, as if we are afraid of that. What is wrong? We will only be
able to really trust each other if we can find trust in each other's eyes.
GUMBEL: Is that at the essence of this poem?
Ms. ANGELOU: Well, it's at the essence of everything I write, really,
Bryant.
GUMBEL: When it's done, Maya, and, you know, when everybody has gone home from Washington,
and--and the applause has died down, and great as the poem will be, it'll be a distant memory. What-what do you hope they think about it? What do you hope they remember from it?
Ms. ANGELOU: I hope that people will remember that it is important to
have courage, that it is the most important of all the virtues because
without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. So it is important to develop the
courage--and the courage to love and to say, `Love.' We--we've become so superficially sophisticated that
we say, `Oh, I dig that, or, `I like,' or, `That's really speaking to me,' instead of saying, `I love it.' What's
wrong? So that's what I'd like people to remember.
GUMBEL: I love you.
Ms. ANGELOU: I love you.
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GUMBEL: Take care of yourself. Will you?
Ms. ANGELOU: Thank you. Thank you.
GUMBEL: You're a great lady. Your mom was right. You're going to be
big.
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