Presidents and Poetry

Presidents and Poetry: On the Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou

A rock, a river, a tree. These things were here, even before people. They saw the earliest people to live on this land, and they have watched every generation since. The author reminds us that the world sees us as all part of one entity, that of humanity. Like we see a single tree as part of a forest or a drop of water as part of the ocean, the Earth sees each of our individual stories as part of one story of all humanity. She reminds us of dinosaurs, another population that once dominated this same land that we now consider ours, perhaps as a warning that as a species, there is no guarantee of survival.

For this reason the rock speaks to us as if we were one person, saying “Come, you may stand upon my back and face your distant destiny”. We will all, no matter our race, gender, profession, or religion, share in the coming destiny. And yet, the river and the tree speak to us as individuals, saying “Each of you”. This is because, though we all share a common past and a common destiny, each of us must commit individually in order to create a more peaceful world, a more beautiful tomorrow.  

The rock, river, and tree are permanent things. They represent the past, the present and the future. In the past, we littered the riverside with debris and fought amongst each other. We didn’t take care of the earth or our fellow human beings as we should have. But the poem asks us to let go of the past, because though past pain and grief “cannot be unlived”, it also “need not be lived again.” In the present, people must plant themselves beside the river. It is worth noting that the author asks listeners to “Plant yourself beside the river”. The choice of the word plant invokes images of starting with something small, and nurturing it into something big. To plant ourselves means to commit ourselves, because what happens to the Earth happens to us. We must fully invest ourselves, because each of our individual destinies is inextricably linked to that of the rest of the world.  

Maya Angelou’s performance of the poem serves to heighten the element of warning in this poem. When she reads the words about the “hastening doom” of the dinosaurs or says “No less to you now than to the mastodon then” it comes across with more urgency, a more serious warning. It also allows her to add more inflection when the rock, river, and tree speak. Because she speaks with emotion, it makes it feel more as if we are actually listening to these things speak, and so these moments when these different things are speaking are much more effective in her performance than when written.