Abie Klein-Stefanchik
Mr. Swider
English 2 PreAP 4thº
15 October 2002
“Hail to the Chief” essay
The poem “Hail to the Chief” is a combination of wit and humor with an underlying sense of how dangerous times have become. The general theme is how our president has treated the Constitution as a useless scrap of paper and trampled over our civil liberties. This criticism of President George W. Bush’s current policy of war and his abuse of power gets its message across through use of allusions, biblical references, and rhyme.
The basic structure of the poem is stichic because there is no definitive grouping of lines into stanzas. However the use of rhyme plays an important role in the total end product. The purpose of rhyme is to give a comic and ironic effect to a more or less serious topic. End rhyme occurs very much in the beginning of the poem, often having several lines in a row that rhyme, giving a lighthearted feeling. An example of this is in lines 3-5, “George the Younger/The Florida-count wonder/The oil warmonger.” Internal rhyme also helps accomplish the silliness like in lines 43 and 44, “Which side are you on?/Suicide or genocide?” At line twelve the playful rhyme is lessened a little bit because the voice changes from an outside critic to George W. Bush speaking a prayer. In line 12 it states “Listen…his nightmare prayer.” This “nightmare prayer” continues throughout the rest of the poem because there is no evidence of it ever changing again
The poem makes use of allusion a great deal. Several references are made to patriotic American songs, the first of which is obviously the title, Hail to the Chief. This song is played when the President makes a formal entrance, but combined with the next line, “Grief thief” it shows the sarcastic nature of the poem. Next at lines 7-9, he says “Look! His rockets’ red glare/Our pockets threadbare/The bombs bursting in air.” The seventh and ninth lines are from the National Anthem, although it says His rockets red glare suggesting that the homeland security bill would give all the power to the president. The middle line refers to the economic down turn that we are now experiencing but the image of threadbare pockets leads to thought of ragged and threadbare clothing. This, in turn, in conjunction with the lines from the Star-Spangled Banner brings to mind an image of Old Glory in tatters. Finally at the top of the second page, “My Country ‘tis of thee/Sweet Homeland security/To thee I sing.” These lines parody the song and alter its meaning for the poet’s purpose. The original song goes “Sweet land of liberty” but by removing that line and replacing it with the Homeland security you get the impression that once this bill has been passed, all of the liberty and freedom that this land stands for will crumble to pieces.
The biblical references also contribute to the layered meaning of the poem. The first example of this is in line 17: “Let America hear 43rd’s psalm/The warlord’s thy shepherd/Thou shall not want/Thy civil liberties upfront.” This is an interesting section because it alludes to the 23rd psalm, “the Lord is my shepherd” by saying hear 43rd’s psalm. The 43 represents Bush as he is the 43rd president. Then the original psalm is changed to make it more fitting for our president: “the warlord’s thy shepherd.” By altering a few words, the poet has taken a Bible verse, one which many people take comfort in, and twisted it to show President Bush in the light of a dictator. Lines 36-41, which say, “And to those rainy-day prophets/Who say again/What does it profit/A nation to gain/The whole world/And lose its own soul…” The original quote was said by Jesus unto his apostles “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). The variation of this verse implies that America is losing the civil rights that make up the foundation, the soul, of our country while we try to get the whole world on our side to fight our enemies.
Aside from the instances already mentioned, there is a lot of other imagery too. For example, lines 5 and 6 describe Bush, saying he’s “The oil warmonger/With a strike-first thirst.” This can be interpreted in several ways. One could say that his “strike-first thirst” is like a thirst for blood; he (Bush) wants this war and wants to be the first to attack. The other meaning is taken from the previous line, saying that he is thirsty for Saddam’s oil. Striking first alludes to digging for oil and striking the ground. The poet also uses two colloquialisms from the southwestern United States. The term “birth daddy,” used in line 14, refers to your genetic father but is not the man that raised you. This is a device used by the poet to poke fun at Former President George Bush, saying that he wasn’t a very good father if he raised his son to be a power-hungry tyrant. The other example of Texas vernacular in lines 21-24, specifically line 24. “The Constitution’s only an old/Scroll of parchment/When thunder rolls/That dog won’t hunt.” The term “that dog won’t hunt” literally means that perhaps the dog won’t come out because it’s afraid of the thunder. In this case, the dog is the Constitution that ceases to function properly when the thunder of unjust war is heard.