Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Poets know how to say things best–and the best poets know how to pack a punch with their words, which are often quoted. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said: “I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose,—words in their best order; poetry,—the best words in their best order.”

When speaking, politicians don’t always use the best words. They tend toward uttering their “talking points” and “staying on message.” They are often caught off guard when someone asks them an unexpected question that they aren’t prepared to answer. Rick Santorum found himself in an awkward position recently. Santorum was speaking at an “ECON-101” Town Hall meeting-style event Thursday sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement at New England College in New Hampshire when he was tripped up by a student who asked him if he knew that his campaign slogan “Fighting to make America America again,” was borrowed from the “pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes.”

Continue reading “Let America Be America Again!: The Politician and The Poet—Rick Santorum vs. Langston Hughes” →