In this presidential election year, NAU Professor Emeritus Paul J. Ferlazzo (American Literature) has published Poetry and the American Presidency (Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2012), a timely book that gives the public a new way to understand the men who have held our nation’s highest office. Ferlazzo explores the poetry enjoyed, memorized, shared, and written by 18 United States (U.S.) Presidents—from George Washington to Barack Obama.
“The story of poetry in the lives of our presidents has never been told,” Ferlazzo says. “For example, did you know that both Abraham Lincoln and Jimmy Carter wrote poetry? That Teddy Roosevelt was a serious reader of poetry and even wrote essays about poetry … [and] that he found the means to financially support several struggling poets? Woodrow Wilson, usually pictured as a serious and scholarly individual, was fond of limericks! He also wrote love poetry. So did George Washington. Harry Truman carried in his wallet an important poem [Tennyson’s ‘Locksley Hall’], and Gerald Ford’s life as a child was changed by memorizing a poem [‘If’ by Kipling].”
Why U.S. presidents appreciated poetry
Beyond these commonalities, many of the Presidents who enjoyed poetry appreciated the inspiration and lessons they received from verse and the practical—and sometimes romantic—importance of poetry in their lives. Thomas Jefferson, for example, was taken with poetry as a means of developing a personal philosophy and learning how to write and speak well. Abraham Lincoln read poetry to remind himself of life’s larger issues and to achieve a sense of inner peace. Teddy Roosevelt believed poetry was important to the development of culture, and Woodrow Wilson wrote in the Atlantic Monthly that “there is more of a nation’s politics to be gotten out of its poetry than out of all its systematic writers upon public affairs and constitutions.”
“When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.” (John F. Kennedy)
More recent presidents have also extolled the importance of poetry and even included poets at their inaugurations. In a convocation address he gave at Amherst College in 1963, John F. Kennedy said: “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concerns, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
To a greater or lesser degree, the U.S. Presidents who enjoyed poetry all believed it served a higher purpose and, for many, it helped to influence the direction of their public and private lives.