Tess Taylor Recommends Poetry About Election Day(s)

Tess Taylor recommends poems about elections and democracy for All Things Considered, including a 1949 sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks, called "First Fight. Then Fiddle." After reading an excerpt from it, Taylor explains to All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly, "…in this Brooks poem, there's this idea of keeping the instrument of yourself ready - at the ready to act and to act out your beliefs. And I think this is just really beautiful. I think that's what we do when we vote." More: 

KELLY: Another poet to consider tonight - the American classic, Walt Whitman.

TAYLOR: It's hard to have a conversation about poetry and democracy without mentioning Walt Whitman.

KELLY: Taylor says there are lines from his poem "For You O Democracy" that remind us of America's foundational promises - promises like the idea of the dream.

TAYLOR: It's worth reading them aloud so that we can connect ourselves with that vision once again.

(Reading) I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America and along the shores of the great lakes and all over the prairies. I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks by the love of comrades, by the manly love of comrades.

Read more of (or listen to) their conversation at All Things Considered.