The first United States of America Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, age 22, debuted a masterful oration on Inauguration Day, Wednesday, January 20, 2021. Read the poem below.
“The Hill We Climb” is just over six minutes long, but listeners are swept along its melodic, swaying use of contrasting linguistic phrasing and words linked by alliteration. Her “performance art” included poignancy in her verbal images and graceful hand gestures.
Hearing her brilliant poem in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4YuEvJ3y4.
Maya Angelou was the second poet in history to speak at an Inauguration ceremony (on January 20, 1993, for Bill Clinton.) She was the first African American and the first woman. On January 20, 2021, Gorman became the second. Both poets share speech difficulties, as does President Biden. Everyone has been tangled in a tongue twister, because of the words’ similar letters/sounds. Gorman strategically moves problematic words apart to avoid that.
Angelou’s book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” inspired the ring on Gorman’s right hand–a bird in a golden cage. It was gifted to her by Oprah Winfrey.
The symbolic color purple (in various tones) appeared in women’s attire and men’s ties. Purple pays homage to the Women’s Suffragette Movement and symbolizes Unity, by blending the colors red and blue.
“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman
When day comes we ask ourselves
Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
A sea we must wade.
We braved the belly of the beast;
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.
And the norms and notions of what just is Isn’t always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it;
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
A nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny black girl descended from slaves
And raised by a single mother can dream of becoming President, Only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine,
But that doesn’t mean we aren’t striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gaze not to what stands between us, But what stands before us.
We close the divide, because we know to put our future first, We must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms
So we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew,
That even as we hurt, we hoped,
That even as we tired, we tried,
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious—
Not because we will never again know defeat
But because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision
That everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, And no one shall make them afraid. If we’re to live up to our own time,
then victory won’t lie in the blade but in all the bridges we’ve made.
That is the promised glade,
The hill we climb if only we dare it.
Because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded,
But while democracy can be periodically delayed It can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust,
For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption.
We feared at its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour,
But within it we found the power
To author a new chapter,
To offer hope and laughter,
To ourselves sow. While once we asked:
How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert: How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was,
But move to what shall be,
A country that is bruised but whole,
Benevolent but bold, Fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation
Because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blunders become their burdens But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might and might with right,
Then love becomes our legacy
And change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.
With every breath of my bronze pounded chest,
We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the golden hills of the West.
We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lakeland cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sunbaked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover
In every known nook of our nation,
In every corner called our country,
Our people, diverse and beautiful,
Will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes we step out of the shade, Aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, If only we’re brave enough to be it.
