syn. moving, provoking, sententious
From Maya Angelou’s "On the Pulse of Morning":
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands,
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For a new beginning.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
At Bill Clinton’s inaugural address, Maya Angelou, in her inspirational poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” declares that anybody can “give birth again to the dream” in order to provoke a positive attitude towards the new presidential administration. Angelou urges everyone to “have the courage to look up and out and upon me” to stress the new hopes and dreams that the new presidency will bring forth. By warning the American people that if they “be wedded forever to fear” they will never succeed, Angelou motivates them to leap boundaries in order to receive the rewards they deserve.
Angelou, Maya. “On the Pulse of Morning.” 20 January 1993. 15 November 2004.
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