On The Pulse of Morning - Themes

Themes

"On the Pulse of Morning" shared many of the themes in President Clinton's inaugural address, which he gave immediately before Angelou read her poem, including change, responsibility, and the President's and the citizenry's role in establishing economic security. The symbols in Angelou's poem (the tree, the river, and the morning, for example) paralleled many of the same symbols Clinton used in his speech, and helped to enhance and expand Clinton's images. Clinton's address and the poem, according to Hagen, both emphasized unity despite the diversity of American culture. "On the Pulse of Morning" attempted to convey many of the goals of Clinton's new administration.

..."On the Pulse of Morning" is an autobiographical poem, one that emerges from her conflicts as an American; her experiences as traveler; her achievements in public speaking and acting; and her wisdom, gleaned from years of self-exploration".

African American literature scholar Mary Jane Lupton

Burr compared Angelou's poem with Frost's, something she claimed the poetry critics who gave "On the Pulse of Morning" negative reviews did not do. Angelou "rewrote" Frost's poem, from the perspective of personified nature that appeared in both poems. Frost praised American colonization, but Angelou attacked it. The cost of the creation of America was abstract and ambiguous in Frost's poem, but the personified Tree in Angelou's poem signified the cultures in America that paid a significant cost to create it. Both Frost and Angelou called for a "break with the past", but Frost wanted to relive it and Angelou wanted to confront its mistakes. Burr also compared Angelou's poem with Audre Lorde's poem "For Each of You", which has similar themes of looking towards the future, as well as with Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" and Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". According to Hagen, the poem contains a recurring theme in many of Angelou's other poems and autobiographies, that "we are more alike than unalike".

"On the Pulse of Morning" was full of contemporary references, like toxic waste and pollution. Angelou's poem was influenced by the African-American oral tradition of spirituals, by poets like James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes, and by modern African poets and folk artists like Kwesi Brew and Efua Sutherland, which also influenced her autobiographies.