The construction of ALMA on its remote site is described in this chapter. The relationship between ALMA and the local indigenous communities is presented. The narrative ends with the inauguration ceremony.

Beginning with the widely discussed poem read by the young poet Amanda Gorman at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, this brief conclusion addresses the vital role that poetry continues to play in our cultural life, while also suggesting how much the borders of the poetic canon have irrevocably shifted since the beginning of the period this book covers. The chapter concludes this study by reflecting on how American poetry has responded in myriad ways to the cultural changes and historical events that have punctuated American life since 1945, while undergoing dramatic evolution and change in terms of its form, style, and content.

Chapter 9 discusses royal inaugurations. It starts out with three particularly well-documented case studies: the enthronement of Emperor Conrad II in 1024, of King Richard Lionheart of England in 1189 and of King Alexander III of Scotland in 1249. The chapter draws attention to the variety of practices adopted in high medieval Europe, and shows that inaugurations cannot be reduced to just one event, but that they include a series of interlocking acts, such as the inauguration itself, but also processions and feasts. Each stage was designed to reinforce basic principles of the royal office, to ensure the continuity of the realm and to display the right order of the world. Particular attention is paid to the process of inauguration as reflecting the status not only of the ruler, but also of his leading subjects, and to the relationship between the ruler and the divine. Kingship was inherently sacred and sacral, but that meant something quite different in a high medieval context than in the modern imagination.