I can just picture the nation's poets parsing over the words, the rhythm, the meaning, and the assonance and consonance of Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem: "Praise Song for the Day."

These are the types of exercises I used to do in my college poetry classes. Before becoming a journalist, I aspired to be a poet. But I discovered quickly that poetry doesn’t pay the bills — not that journalism is a high-paying or secure profession either. Though journalism has pretty much beaten the poet out of me, it has not rid me of my fondness for alliteration (see above: picture ... poets ... parsing) and assonance (partial rhyming of like-sounding vowels) and consonance (partial rhyming of consonants but not vowels).

Before anyone passes any snooty judgment on Alexander’s poem (full text here), it’s important to point out that she makes her living as a Yale professor and published poet. And she is a brave poet because our new president apparently is a poet himself. Furthermore, she’s apparently only the fourth poet to have crafted a poem for an inaugural address, following the likes of Maya Angelou and Robert Frost. And they probably didn’t face the millions of people on the mall that she did, possibily the largest crowd ever at a poetry reading.

I went online to see if there’s any reaction to the poem so far today, and here’s what I found:

A fellow named Dean Rader, who writes the cleverly named "The Weekly Rader," has this to say: 

"The best moment in Alexander's poem may have been her catalogue of professions (teacher, farmer) who, in going about their business embodied the practice of everyday poetry. Echoing Whitman, William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes, Alexander also invoked Angelou toward the end of her poem, 'On the brink, the brim, the cusp,' suggesting the optimism sitting, not so patiently, on the nation's tongue."

Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker weighs in: "Today's challenge to the poet Elizabeth Alexander was even greater than previous poets who'd been asked to write verse for an inaugural day. After all, Barack Obama has written some pretty good poems himself, one of which can be read here."

Still, Tucker writes: "Alexander's poem proved to be a sturdy one, a steady march of free verse iambic pentameter that spoke of national resolve through the metaphor of 'repairing the things in need of repair'...."

I am especially partial to her closing:

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

So, readers and poets and poet wannabes, what did you think of Alexander’s poem? Did you watch her on TV? Will she and our new president inspire a new generation of poets? Please respond in Comments section below.