| Date: |
Monday, January 1, 2001
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| Question/Topic: |
Poem - Lady of Freedom Among us, by Rita Dove about the Statue of Freedom on the dome of the U.S. Capitol
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| Answer/Pointer: |
Lady of Freedom among us This poem was written and ready by Rita Dove to commemorate
don't lower your eyes Oct. 23 [1993] return of the Statue of Freedom to the dome of the
or stare straight ahead to where U.S. Capitol. The statue had been taken down for restoration
you think you ought to be going (Tallahassee Democrat 11/28/93)
don't mutter oh no
not another one
get a job fly a kite
go bury a bone
with her oldfashioned sandals
with her leaden skirts
with her stained cheeks and whispers and heaped up trinkets
she has risen among us in blunt reproach
she has fitted her hair under a hand-me-down cap
and spruced it up with feathers and stars
slung over one shoulder she bears
the rainbowed layers of charity and murmurs
all of you and even the least of you
don't cross to the other side of the square
don't think another item to fit on a tourist's agenda
consider her drenched gaze her shining brow
she who has brought mercy back into the streets
and will not retire politely to the potter's field
having assumed the thick skin of this town
its gritted exhaust its sunscorch and blear
she rests her weathered plumage
bigboned resolute
don't think you can ever forget her
don't even try
she's not going to budge
no choice but to grant her space
crown her with sky
for she is one of the many
and she is each of us.
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| Librarian: |
LCLCPL
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| Comments: |
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