The Hill We Climb

Gorman in 2017

Amanda Gorman is an American poet from Los Angeles, California. In 2017, aged 19, she was named the first National Youth Poet Laureate.[2] On January 14, 2021, the Inaugural Committee, which was organizing the inauguration of Joe Biden, announced that Gorman would be giving a poetry reading at the event on January 20.[3] Gorman said that she began to write the poem in early January by reviewing poems written by past inaugural poets, who have included Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. She also studied famous orators such as Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and Winston Churchill.[4][1][5] Gorman also spoke with Richard Blanco and Elizabeth Alexander, two previous inaugural poets.[6]

Joe Biden's wife, Jill Biden, asked Gorman to deliver a poem at the inauguration in December 2020.[7] She was informed of her selection on December 30, 2020,[8] and asked to write a poem that contributed to the inauguration's overall theme of "America United", but without any other direction.[9] Gorman wrote several lines a day,[8] and had the poem around half-way completed when the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol occurred on January 6.[4] Gorman told The New York Times that she had been struggling to complete the poem and worrying about whether it would be adequate.[6] She said that the storming marked "the day that the poem really came to life" in an interview with CBS News, as she worked the events into her poem.[5] Gorman finished the poem on the night of January 6.[8]

Gorman, who had a speech impediment as a child, was twenty-two years old when she read the poem, making her the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration.[4][10] She practiced the poem repeatedly before delivering it.[6] She sought to use the poem as an opportunity to call for "unity and collaboration and togetherness."[1]

"The Hill We Climb" took Gorman around five minutes to read[1] and is 723 words long.[12] It begins with the line: "When day comes, we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade?" and then describes the storming of the capitol as "a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it" before stating that "while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated." She also spoke about her heritage, being descended from slaves, and her dreams for the future.[1] She described America as "not broken but simply unfinished"[13] and noted its losses but also the opportunity for reconcillation.[6] Gorman makes use of large amounts of alliteration and "reassuring aphorisms".[14]

The poem has several references to the musical Hamilton.[15][16] After the inauguration, in response to praise from Hamilton playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gorman explained that her poem includes references to the musical; The Associated Press writes that references include the line "History has its eyes on us," which echoes the Hamilton song "History Has Its Eyes On You."[17] The poem also references the Bible, quoting Micah 4:4: "that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid",[18][11] a verse quoted in the Hamilton song "One Last Time".[19]

The poem was widely praised by figures including Lin-Manuel Miranda,[20] Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams, Michelle Obama,[1] and Barack Obama.[21] Critics received the poem very well, noting that it would likely remain significant beyond the inauguration.[1][22][23] Many critics named the poem as a highlight of the inauguration and praised Gorman's messages of unity, reflections on the past, and hope for the future.[24][12][25] Several critics also drew parallels between her poem and the works of other inaugural poets, such as Frost and Blanco.[13][26]

The Guardian's critic considered the poem a tour-de-force for Gorman,[27] while The Wall Street Journal described it as a "star turn" and noted that for a time she was gaining followers on Twitter at a faster rate than Joe Biden.[8] Jeneé Osterheldt in The Boston Globe praised the poem as "a forever spiritual to sing. A poem for us." She noted that Gorman's message could be about every African-American girl who has a dream and drew connections to Kamala Harris. Osterheldt also compared the poem and its delivery to Angelou's "On the Pulse of Morning" that was delivered at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993 and its message to Langston Hughes's "A Dream Deferred." [22] Shayla Harris writes for Ebony, "Her poignant reflections on the country’s past and her vision for progress were brought to life through masterful delivery. Through this performance Gorman has marked a place for herself in the African American oral tradition."[28]

BBC News critic Will Gompertz described the poem as "a beautifully paced, well-judged poem for a special occasion" that would resonate beyond Biden's inauguration, and praised Gorman for delivering it with "grace."[1] The Atlantic described the reading as "flawless."[14] A critic for NPR praised Gorman's reading, her poem, and its message.[13] Dwight Garner of The New York Times Critic's Notebook wrote that Gorman was "a one-person reminder that if winter is here, then spring cannot be far behind," and "If her performance made you vaguely feel that you’d had a blood transfusion, it was perhaps because you could sense the beginning of a remade connection in America between cultural and political life."[29]

Liesl Schillinger in The Guardian described the recitation of the poem as the crowning moment of Gorman's rise to become "the voice of a new American era" and called the final lines a "poetic battle cry". She also noted that Gorman's "assurance and bearing made her seem to stand outside time".[23] Seth Perlow, an English teacher at Georgetown University, wrote in The Washington Post that while Gorman makes use of many "generic Americanisms", she distinguished the poem "by performing with remarkable dynamism and grace". He felt that "The Hill We Climb" was not as good as Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day" but that Gorman's reading was the best reading at a presidential inauguration.[30]

Several reporters noted Gorman's outfit, which included jewelry that was given to her by Winfrey, a yellow coat designed by Miuccia Prada, and a red puff satin headband, also designed by Prada.[7][24] She sought to honor Angelou by wearing a ring that depicted a caged bird, referencing Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.[7][20]

Shortly after the inauguration, Penguin Young Readers announced a publication of 150,000 hardcover copies of the poem in spring 2021, set to begin on April 27. The poem will also be included in a collection titled The Hill We Climb. It will be Gorman's first published collection of poetry and is set to be released by Viking Books for Young Readers in September 2021.[6][31] The day after the inauguration, The Hill We Climb and Change Sings, a picture book by Gorman also scheduled for publication by Viking in September 2021, were the two best-selling print books at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[32][33]

• United States presidential inauguration § Poems

• Transcript of "The Hill We Climb" from The Hill (as recited at the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden)