Primary Source Learning: Presidential Poetry
Did you know that a number of U.S. presidents wrote poetry? Many of them also had poems written about them. What can you learn about the presidents from these poems?
- George Washington: Love Poet From the Catbird Seat
- “His Excellency General Washington” Phillis Wheatley
- Life of George Washington in Verse 1917
- African-American History Month: A Forgotten Tribute to President Abraham Lincoln
- “O Captain! My Captain!” Walt Whitman
- “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” Vachel Lindsay
- Abraham Lincoln: A Poem James Richard Freeman
- Abraham Lincoln: A Poetical Interpretation George William Bell
- Life of Abraham Lincoln in Verse Benjamin Jesse Gunn
- “Lincoln, the Man of the People” Edwin Markham
- Our Martyr President: Poetry by W. Dexter Smith, Jr.; Music by Oscar Linden
- “Considering the Void” Jimmy Carter | recitation
- Jimmy Carter’s Lifelong Love of Poetry Bookmarked
- President Carter Publishes a Book of Poetry The Carter Center
- “The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott’s Collected Poems” Yusef Komunyakaa
Poetry and the Presidential Inauguration From the Catbird Seat
Inaugural Poetry – Robert Frost and Maya Angelou From the Catbird Seat