The Hill We Climb, In This Place

Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history at age 24 (almost 25 since her birthday is tomorrow!), as well as an award-winning writer and Sociology graduate of Harvard University. She was born and grew up in Los Angeles, beginning to write at a very young age. Recently, her writings have gotten her invitations to the White House for the Biden Inauguration on January 20, 2021, as the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. She also performed for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and many more.

Amanda Gorman recites the poem "The Hill We Climb" at the Biden Inauguration

She has written many different works, including The Hill We Climb and Change Sings (written as a children's anthem). 

After some research, I discovered that Gorman was halfway through writing The Hill We Climb when the rioters stormed the Capitol building (I completely forgot this happened). As a result, I noticed that Gorman especially utilized alliteration, imagery, and allusions to emphasize the overall theme of race in America and how events that evoke grief/horror can be overcome with joy/hope after reading The Hill We Climb. The diction she chooses to employ has a very specific contribution to the connotation of the entirety of the poem. Therefore, the poem shifts from grief/defeat, determination, and finally, to hope. 

The Hill We Climb

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 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 are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our 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 promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.
It’s 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.
So, 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, become the future.
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.
Every breath from 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 lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.
And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.
The new dawn balloons 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.

Repetition is utilized by Gorman to emphasize the hope that comes from the grief of the events that happened in America, including the storming of the capitol building. Gorman uses allusion to mention the prior historical provisions of America made by previous advocators of racial justice. Rhyme is especially used throughout the poem to emphasize the changes in tone - grief to determination to hope. Imagery is utilized to evoke sensory details on the glorification of the U.S. so unification will arise from the Americans to achieve hope.

Lastly, my (rather terrible) attempt at writing like Gorman:

So let us rise from the remains of the injustices we created.

Every word from my determined lips, we will raise this injured world into an ideal one.

We will rise from the bronzed prairies of the West.

We will rise from the chill air Northeast where our first victory was achieved.

We will rise from the natural reservoirs of the Midwestern states.

We will rise from the sunbathed South.

We will create, conjoin, and conquer.