His Day Is Done: A Nelson Mandela Tribute is a slim hardback book of a poem that takes fewer than five minutes to recite.
Here are the opening lines:
I’m restraining myself here but oh dear lord this is pretty bad poetry and there’s something that strikes me as utterly crass about the whole business of this little book, although I have no doubt that Angelou’s intentions are the purest (and even publisher Random House’s)—but yeesh.
Biblioklept 
Every thing that is wrong with traditional American publishing’s relationship to poetry is encompassed neatly in this weightless instant classic.
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Yep.
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It gets not better if you consider the wonderful poem Angelou perhaps alludes to:
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of paine,
My Crop of corne is but a field of tares,
And al my good is but vaine hope of gaine.
The day is past, and yet I saw no sunne,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
My tale was heard, and yet it was not told,
My fruite is falne, & yet my leaves are greene:
My youth is spent, and yet I am not old,
I saw the world, and yet I was not seene.
My thred is cut, and yet it is not spunne,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death, and found it in my wombe,
I lookt for life, and saw it was a shade:
I trod the earth, and knew it was my Tombe,
And now I die, and now I was but made.
My glasse is full, and now my glasse is runne,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
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Angelou spoke at my college in the 90’s. Most of the students thought she was wonderful and had their little hearts filled with her wise words.
The next day I’m in an English class and the professor walks in and asks who attended the Angelou event the night before. He then says, “wasn’t that the biggest pile of horseshit you’ve ever heard?!” and then spent the next hour taking the whole event apart. It was amazing.
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What was amazing? The breakdown of Maya Angelou’s wise words or the attacks your professor made to her?
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I am sorry but I am confused, what do you want to say here/? Is the death of Nelson Mandela a good thing to the United States/Maya Angelou/the publication?
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@lotuschou it was the teardown of the event in which Maya Angelou blew smoke up our collective college asses.
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