Poem hails 'Melania the fair,' 'the handsome Trump clan'

(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 17 January 2017

A poem in honor of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration has been published, and boy is it something. Titled "Pibroch of the Domhnall," the piece is inspired by Trump's Scottish ancestry ("Domhnall," the Scottish form of the name Donald, is pronounced like "TONE-all," the author notes). It was written by Joseph Charles MacKenzie, who is apparently an actual poet, though one who is not reportedly affiliated in any way with Trump's inauguration or transition.

You would be forgiven to mistake him for a satirist, though. Here is an actual stanza from the poem:

MacKenzie adds in his notes that "the refrains at the end of each stanza are to be recited by the Inaugural crowd," like some sort of medieval "long live the king!" "MacLeod" is a reference to Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod. And while a Scottish lyric poem might seem strange to inaugurate an American president, Trump declared in 2008, after visiting the cottage where his mother grew up, that "I feel Scottish."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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