Maya Angelou, the African-American poet who is one of the most influential and respected literary voices of the modern age, has written a poem praising Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign for The Observer.
Angelou, author of an autobiographical series of books, including the international bestseller I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was moved to send the verse after being asked by the newspaper for her reflections on Clinton.
She is supporting Clinton despite her close friendship with television personality and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, a prominent backer of rival Democrat Barack Obama, the first black presidential hopeful with a real chance of reaching the White House.
Angelou is steadfast in her loyalty to Clinton. She said recently: 'I made up my mind 15 years ago that if she ever ran for office I'd be on her wagon. My only difficulty with Senator Obama is that I believe in going out with who I went in with.'
The 79-year-old poet was the centrepiece of Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993 when she read her poem On the Pulse of Morning, playing on the idea of a new political dawn. Last week she handed this new poem over to the Clinton campaign.
Angelou says that she has had many long telephone conversations with Winfrey on the subject of Obama versus Clinton. 'She thinks he's the best, and I think my woman is the best,' she has explained. 'Oprah is a daughter to me, but she is not my clone.'
Angelou was recently voted one of the 10 most admired women in America, in a poll topped by Hillary Clinton. The very public marital problems suffered by the Clintons during their time at the White House seem to have reinforced Angelou's admiration for Hillary.
'When he had his brush with Ms Lewinsky, the whole world was looking under Mrs Clinton's bedclothes. Many people expected her to fall or to become as hard as a rock,' she has said. 'She did neither. I love that about her. She didn't pretend she wasn't hurt and she didn't become a virago.'
Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, said of the poem: 'This is a great thing for The Observer to have.' He favourably compared it with the 'vivid flourishes' of Angelou's recent work. 'With this kind of poem Angelou has decided to interpret public writing as a verbal equivalent of making a poster, and there's nothing wrong with this. The rhetoric is full of big gestures that make a direct appeal to our feelings, rather than getting to it by the little winding ways more personal poetry might use.'
Motion said the lines raise questions about whether 'poster-style' poems can live long beyond the moment. 'Maybe Angelou doesn't mean them to. On their own terms they have the vivacity and strength and colours you would expect of posters. But they have a sort of best-before date, or rather a best-on date, stamped on them.'
It is not known how long Angelou spent writing the poem, but in the weeks leading up to President Bill Clinton's first inauguration she is said to have begun work at 5.30 every morning, equipped with a glass of sherry, a dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus and the Bible.
Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928 in St Louis, Missouri, and lived with her mother until she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. In England she became famous in the early Seventies with the first of her volumes of autobiography.
During her extraordinary life she has worked as a prostitute, a professor, a Creole cook, an aide to Martin Luther King, a singer, an actress, a dancer, the editor of an Egyptian newspaper and a single mother, as well as producing poetry and plays.
In recent years she has controversially even written lines to be printed inside greetings cards. 'Life is a glorious banquet, a limitless and delicious buffet,' reads one of her Hallmark epigrams.
She has defended this commercial decision against literary snobbery: 'If I'm America's poet, or one of them, I want to be in people's hands. All people's hands, people who would never buy a book.'
It remains to be seen if she will find herself once again rising at dawn to compose new stanzas to mark a third Clinton inauguration.
State Package for Hillary Clinton
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
This is not the first time you have seen Hillary Clinton seemingly at her wits' end, but she has always risen, always risen, don't forget she has always risen, much to the dismay of her adversaries and the delight of her friends.
Hillary Clinton will not give up on you and all she asks of you is that you do not give up on her.
There is a world of difference between being a woman and being an old female. If you're born a girl, grow up, and live long enough, you can become an old female. But to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies. Hillary Clinton is a woman. She has been there and done that and has still risen. She is in this race for the long haul. She intends to make a difference in our country. Hillary Clinton intends to help our country to be what it can become.
She declares she wants to see more smiles in the family, more courtesies between men and women, more honesty in the marketplace. She is the prayer of every woman and man who longs for fair play, healthy families, good schools, and a balanced economy.
She means to rise.
Don't give up on Hillary. In fact, if you help her to rise, you will rise with her and help her make this country the wonderful, wonderful place where every man and every woman can live freely without sanctimonious piety and without crippling fear.
Rise, Hillary.
Rise.