Inaugural Poets

After Robert Frost recited a poem from memory at John F. Kennedy’s 1961 festivities (the glare of the sun prevented him from reading the poem he had composed), it took 31 years before another president, Bill Clinton, asked a poet – Maya Angelou -- to the podium. Next Monday, when Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco shares some verse on the west portico of the U.S. Capitol, he will succeed Elizabeth Alexander, who President Obama chose to read at his first inauguration in 2009. If you are interested in the writings of this select group of poets, here are a few collections to try:

City of a Hundred Fires by Richard Blanco

American Sublime: Poems by Elizabeth Alexander

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

Poems by Robert Frost