Eighty-two-year-old Donald Hall, former poet laureate and all-around man of literary distinction, was one of the recent recipients of National Medal of Arts at the White House, and is seen here in a photograph with President Obama:
He and the president are clearly smiling at one another. As readers will note, Hall is wearing a classic Brooks Brothers-style sack suit and Macclesfield tie, slightly hidden by the medal, and his full beard and slightly unkempt hair give him a certain Walt Whitman look. By my reckoning, Mr. Hall appears to be his age but looks hearty enough—which is impressive, since he has been battling cancer since 1989.
This is, by any reckoning, a poignant moment: High culture, personified by the Harvard/Oxford-educated formalist poet of soaring reputation and long tenure, is honored by the civil state, personified by our trim, solicitous president. Unfortunately, that is not the way the Washington Post saw it. This particular photograph was featured in a March 2 online feature called “ComPost,” written by reporter Alexandra Petri, on a blog she coauthors with columnist Dana Milbank, with the following headline: “Photo Caption Contest!”
Read the rest @ http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/washington-post-mocks-national-medal-arts-winner-cancer-survivor_553844.html
a12iggymom's Blog 