Hi. i have to do an assignment on an inuguration poem. i need to compare and contrast. please read the rest!!?

well. we need to compare one of the three inuarguations. the people who read the presidents inurgationss from the following



miller williams

maya angelou

robert frost



i picked miller williams ( since i know everyone in my class is going to pick maya angelou). he read a poem at bill clintons inurgaral. and i need to compare and contrast miller williams poem with elizabeth alexanders poem that was read at obama's inaguraration.



and say what we think each of their poem mean.







i need help!!!.



i read each of their poem. some of their words it's big words so i cant under stand the meaning of the whole poem.





AND I NEED TO HAVE A ORAL PRESENTATION IN FRONT OF MY CLASSMATES!



please help me. i copied miller williams poem from bill clinton's inuguration and elizabeth alexander's poem from obama's inugraration.



ALL i need is for you guys to help and tell me what each of their poems mean to you.



and tell me the similarites of the poems and the differences.







I KNOW it might seem like im cheating since im asking you guys. but im stage fright and i cant mess up. pleeeassse tell me. i have to present monday january 26th.

































































Of History and Hope miller williams









We have memorized America,



how it was born and who we have been and where.



In ceremonies and silence we say the words,



telling the stories, singing the old songs.



We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.



The great and all the anonymous dead are there.



We know the sound of all the sounds we brought.



The rich taste of it is on our tongues.



But where are we going to be, and why, and who?



The disenfranchised dead want to know.



We mean to be the people we meant to be,



to keep on going where we meant to go.



But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how



except in the minds of those who will call it Now?



The children. The children. And how does our garden grow?



With waving hands -- oh, rarely in a row --



and flowering faces. And brambles, that we can no longer allow.



Who were many people coming together



cannot become one people falling apart.



Who dreamed for every child an even chance



cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.



Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head



cannot let chaos make its way to the heart.



Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child



cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.



We know what we have done and what we have said,



and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,



believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become --



just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.



All this in the hands of children, eyes already set



on a land we never can visit -- it isn't there yet --



but looking through their eyes, we can see



what our long gift to them may come to be.



If we can truly remember, they will not forget.













































































elizabeth alexander

















PRAISE SONG FOR THE DAY: A POEM FOR BARACK OBAMA鈥橲 PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION



Each day we go about our business,

walking past each other, catching each other

eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.



All about us is noise. All about us is

noise and bramble, thorn and din, each

one of our ancestors on our tongues.



Someone is stitching up a hem, darning

a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,

repairing the things in need of repair.



Someone is trying to make music somewhere,

with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,

with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.



A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky.

A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.



We encounter each other in words, words

spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,

words to consider, reconsider.



We cross dirt roads and highways that mark

the will of some one and then others, who said

I need to see what on the other side.



I know there something better down the road.

We need to find a place where we are safe.

We walk into that which we cannot yet see.



Say it plain: that many have died for this day.

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.



Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.

Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,

the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.



Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,

others by first do no harm or take no more

than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?



Love beyond marital, filial, national,

love that casts a widening pool of light,

love with no need to pre-empt grievance.



In today 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 waHi. i have to do an assignment on an inuguration poem. i need to compare and contrast. please read the rest!!?
You need to explain what an inuarguation is first. It sounds like something in pirate language.