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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) In January 2021, the 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman achieved a record: she became the youngest person ever to recite a poem at a US President’s inauguration, when Gorman read her poem ‘The Hill We Climb’ at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The poem is hopeful while being realistic…
- Summary
- Themes
- Literary and Historical Context
- Speaker
- Setting
- Literary Devices
- Detailed Analysis
- Structure and Form
- Symbols
- Similar Poetry
From the beginning to the end of the poem, Gorman uses images of light and darkness, hope and fear, to describe the two opposing sides of America, those who want to divide and those who want to unify. Her image of the country is not one that’s defeated or failed but one that’s still on its way to being what its rhetoricalready suggests it is. She s...
In ‘The Hill We Climb,’ the poet engages with themes of the future and past, as well as hope. The latter is the primary theme at the heart of the poem and what she wants readers and listeners to walk away from the piece feeling. She returns several times to the image of light/darkness and how America is stepping out of the “shade” and turning towar...
This piece was performed at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States, on January 20th, 2021. It was viewed by millions on television and by a select few in person who were under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The poem encapsulates the broader history of the country and its struggle for and against...
The speaker in ‘The Hill We Climb’ is Gorman herself. She references herself a few times in the text, as well as her upbringing, goals, and her family. She refers to herself as a “skinny Black girl descended from slaves” and celebrates the fact that because of the way the tide has changed so far in regard to race in the United States that she is ab...
The setting of ‘The Hill We Climb’ is the exact moment in which Gorman is reading it. She is standing at the inauguration ceremony of the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, talking about herself standing there reading a poem. More broadly, Gorman speaks about her location in the United States among a diverse population and in the middl...
Gorman makes use of several literary devices in ‘The Hill We Climb.’ These include but are not limited to anaphora, enjambment, and allusion. The latter is one of the most important devices in the poem. It occurs when the poet makes a reference to something but doesn’t clearly describe it. In this piece, she alludes to the struggles America, and th...
Lines 1-20
In the first lines of ‘The Hill We Climb,’ the speaker begins by making a few powerful statements about what “we’ve learned.” The “we” she uses throughout the poem refers to the American people, and more broadly the citizens of the contemporary world. She alludes to dark moments in our recent history, using “shade” as a symbol for them. There are losses, a sea to “wade” and many horrors in the past, represented by the “belly of the beast.”These lines refer to everything from economic and raci...
Lines 21-40
In the next lines, readers should take a moment to consider how the examples of alliteration in the lines work together to give rhythmto a poem that has no clear metrical pattern. For example, “cultures, colors, characters and / conditions.” Another example follows with “future first.” In the later lines, there is another good example of repetition, specifically, anaphora. It occurs when the same word or words are used at the beginning of lines. In this case, “that even as we.” The poet asks...
Lines 41-60
In the next lines, the speaker says that America and Americans will overcome their differences and be “victorious” not because they will “never again know defeat” but because they “will never again sow division.” They would not, in this scenario, be defeated in their unity. No one is going to turn on their neighbor and that will mean that America will stay strong and true to its ideals. It’s in the next lines that the poet alludes to a very recent event in the historical contextof this poem,...
‘The Hill We Climb’ by Amanda Gorman is a 110-line poem that does not follow a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. The poem is written in free verse but that doesn’t mean that it is entirely without rhyme or rhythm. In fact, this poem is defined by its use of rhyme almost as much as it is by its content and historical context. For example, “...
The Hill
The hill is at the heart of Gorman’s inaugural poem. It features in the title and is part of every line she recited at Joe Biden’s inauguration. It symbolizes the hill that the United States is currently climbing, socially and politically, and how far the country still has to go before it reaches the top of the hill. ‘The Hill We Climb’ mentions, as other inaugural poemshave described before hers, that America is not a perfect country. It might arrive there eventually, but for now, everyone h...
Unity
Although perhaps out of reach in the contemporary moment, unity is the final goal that ‘The Hill We Climb’ advocates for. Eventually, Gorman suggests, America will be able to come together as one people. Different races and religions will be accepted and celebrated for their individuality rather than singled out for it.
Light/Dark
Light is a very common symbol in inaugural poems. It can be found within the first and last lines of ‘The Hill We Climb’ and is always contrasted with darkness. Light takes on the traditional symbol of hope, a new day, and peace while dark symbolizes suffering and the mistakes of the past. Gorman uses passages to depict America stepping out of the dark and into the light. Such as the following lines found at the end of the poem: She depicts the American people as the light and the hope of the...
Readers who enjoyed Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb,’ should also consider reading some related poems. For example: 1. ‘America’ by Allen Ginsberg—depicts the poet’s own disappointment with the social and political situation of America at the time this poem was written. 2. ‘Long, too long America’by Walt Whitman— an early Civil War poem in which...
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Mar 31, 2024 · Table of Contents. “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman was written in the tumultuous aftermath of the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection and first performed at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. It was published in the collection The Hill We Climb by Viking Books for Young Readers in September 2021. The poem is notable for its ...
Feb 2, 2023 · Amanda Gorman wrote and performed The Hill We Climb for Joe Biden’s inauguration as President in 2021. The poem praises the US not as a “perfect union” but as a nation facing its challenges. The poem describes a long and sometimes painful “climb” up the “hill” of justice that requires patience and humility.
Jan 19, 2021 · In this lesson, students examine the poetry of Amanda Gorman, who was chosen to read her poem "The Hill We Climb" at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.
Jan 20, 2021 · Among the firsts in Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” is the concept of democracy that it assumed. Democracy, according to the twenty-two-year-old poet, is an aspiration ...
Jan 20, 2021 · ‘An inspiration to us all’: Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem stirs hope and awe 20 Jan 2021 Joe Biden reverses anti-immigrant Trump policies hours after swearing-in
