President's Message

about Presidential Poets

In this election year successful candidates are likely to be those that communicate clearly. Hopefully, their public comments and conversations also give us insight to the human inside. Poetry does that best, especially when the poetic carries over into their speeches and writings.

Many U.S. presidents have tried to work the magic. Poems survive from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler and Abraham Lincoln. Our first president wrote love poems in his youth and Jefferson capped his poetry portfolio with a goodbye poem on his deathbed. Madison wrote poetry full of political satire, and Adams, a published poet, once wrote, "Could I have chosen my own genius and condition, I would have made myself a great poet". Tyler wrote poetry throughout his life when in happy moods, especially love poems and ballads when courting his second wife Julia, who was thirty years his junior.

As one might suspect from Lincoln's speeches, poetry must have been a strong influence in his life. His earliest documented poem written as a teenager: Abraham Lincoln/his hand and pen/he will be good but/god knows When. His writing in poetic forms continued on and off until at least 1863. [Editor's insertion: The opening lines of the Gettysburg Address certainly have a poetic quality.]

Modern presidents have also written poetry. Jimmy Carter was the first president to publish a book of poetry, Always a Reckoning, and Other Poems (New York: Times Books, 1995), a collection of 44 poems illustrated by his granddaughter Sarah Elizabeth Chuldenko. He was also the first president to publish a novel (The Hornet's Nest, Simon & Schuster, 2003).

Barack Obama, another president whose speeches reflect strong poetic influence, wrote poems in his youth and maintains a respectable library of poetry. Other presidents became poets in love letters to their wives: John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan.

By the numbers, close to a third of our presidents responded to the poetic muse, while only one wrote a novel. (Others have written memoirs and political philosophies.) Is there a correlation between those influenced by poetry and successful political leadership? Perhaps in addition to stump speeches and debates, candidates should give poetry readings. Let them allow us to see the true man or woman behind the sound bites, posters, and posturing.

Back to top