The Full Text of “The Hill We Climb”
The Full Text of “The Hill We Climb”
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“The Hill We Climb” Introduction
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Amanda Gorman wrote and performed "The Hill We Climb" to celebrate the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States. The poem celebrates the U.S. not as a "perfect union," but as a country that has the grit to struggle with its all-too-real problems. Progress, the poem argues, doesn't happen all at once: it's a slow and sometimes painful "climb" up the "hill" of justice, a climb that takes patience and humility. To this poem's speaker, change is hard work, but it's always possible: dedicated Americans can see—and be!—the "light" of a better future.
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“The Hill We Climb” Summary
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The speaker says that at the beginning of a new morning, we as Americans ask ourselves: where can we find light in what seems to be an eternal darkness? The grief we carry with us is like a huge, deep sea that we have to slowly struggle through. We've endured some of the worst possible times. We've discovered that business as usual isn't always the same thing as real peace, and that conventional ideas of fairness aren't always the same thing as true and enduring justice.
But, the speaker continues, the sun rises before we even know it's happened. Somehow, we get through to a new day. We've seen some hard times through, and seen that our country isn't fundamentally unsalvageable; it's just not finished being built yet.
We're living in a time when the speaker—a scrawny Black girl whose ancestors were slaves, who was brought up by a single mom, and who dreamed of being president one day—can stand here reciting this very poem for the next president.
Sure, the U.S. isn't even close to perfect, but that doesn't mean that Americans have to aim for immediate perfection. Instead, we've got to see our efforts as a purposeful process to form a unified country. We want to make a country that is equally livable for all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds.
As such, we look up, not at everything that separates us from each other, but at the huge task that lies in front of us. We join with each other across boundaries because we know we need to look past our differences if we want to build a better future for everyone. We put down our weapons so that we can instead embrace each other. We want a country that doesn't hurt anyone, and that brings everyone together.
If the rest of the world only says one thing about the people of this country, let them say this: we learned through our sorrow. We kept hoping even when we were in pain. We kept trying even when we were exhausted. And that we'll create a better world by always working closely together.
That doesn't mean that we're always going to win—only that we won't try to separate ourselves from each other anymore.
The Bible tells us to imagine a future in which every person will be safe and happy in the "garden" of their own life, afraid of no one. If we want to rise to the promise of the era we live in, we'll have to learn from this, and not try to solve problems with violence, but with connection. That encouraging vision of the future is the "garden" we have to grow, the challenging "hill" we have to climb up, if we're brave enough to do so.
We'll do this because being American isn't just about being patriotic. It's about acknowledging our troubled past, addressing our problems rather than pretending they're not there, and doing something to fix them.
We've recently seen that some Americans would have preferred to rip the country apart rather than share it with people who aren't like them—would have ruined the country just to get in the way of the democratic process. And they almost got away with it! But while democracy can be slowed down, it can't be stopped forever.
We Americans put our faith in that belief. As we look to the future, we know that the future is looking back at us. And we're finally coming to the time in our history when justice can be served. We were all pretty frightened of this era when it began; we didn't feel ready for the kind of responsibility it demanded. But within this dark period, we've come to see ourselves as the writers of our own history, and we've managed to stay hopeful and keep laughing. We might once have asked, "How on earth can we survive this terrible time?" But now, we say, "How could a terrible time ever defeat us?"
We won't go back to the way things were, and instead will move forward towards something new. As a nation, we're battered but not broken, forgiving but strong, brave and free. We won't let violence and intimidation stop us: we know that the next generation will only inherit a legacy of stalled progress if we don't keep working now. Our mistakes will become our children's problems. One thing is sure, however: if we combine forgiveness with power, and power with moral goodness, then we'll leave our children an inheritance of love instead.
So let's leave this country better than we found it. With every breath I draw into my armored body, we'll transform this suffering, injured world into an astonishing one.
We'll rise from the golden hills of the western United States. We'll rise from the windy northeastern U.S., where the American Revolution began. We'll rise from the Great Lakes in the Midwest. We'll rise from the dry, sunny South. We'll rebuild, forgive each other, and get better.
In every little bit of the U.S., citizens from all different backgrounds will come out of hiding, beat up but lovely. When the sun rises, we come out of the darkness, glowing with passion and fearlessness.
The new sun rises when we allow it to rise. Because light never goes away, if we have the courage to look for it—if we have the courage to make it ourselves.
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“The Hill We Climb” Themes
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Hope and Progress as American Values
Written for Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th President of the United States, Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” presents a country that isn’t striving for perfection, but for steady, ongoing improvement. While the U.S. is still full of conflict and difficulty, the speaker suggests, it’s worth celebrating the progress the country has made up the “hill” of justice, and working to make sure that it keeps on climbing. American problems can’t be solved all in one fell swoop, this poem argues—but that’s no reason to give up the hope that things can get a lot better over time.
In recent years, the speaker suggests, the U.S. has been going through a dark and difficult period, full of hatred and division. This doesn’t mean the country is irrevocably broken, however. Rather, Americans should have hope that their “unpolished” country can get better—and should see themselves as playing an important part in that change.
While the U.S. has seen years of turmoil and suffering, the speaker says, this is also a day upon which a “skinny Black girl descended from slaves” can find herself “reciting” for a new president (and hoping to be president herself someday)! This autobiographical moment, in which Amanda Gorman clearly refers to her own life experience as a young Black poet speaking at Biden’s inauguration, suggests that every individual American has a part to play in changing the country for the better. These lines also point out that the country has already gotten better, in spite of all its recent struggles.
Yet even as there’s plenty of hope for better times, the speaker cautions readers that change comes slowly. What’s important is not to “form a union that is perfect,” but to “forge a union with purpose,” seeing continuous effort as an American value that will continue generation after generation. The American task, the speaker suggests, is to say that “Even as we hurt, we hoped […] Even as we tired, we tried.” That is, Americans shouldn’t be discouraged by the difficulty and pain of trying to make lasting change for the better, but understand these as inevitable parts of progress—and of good citizenship. This kind of persistence also involves looking hopefully to the future. Americans must refuse to give up, because “our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.” Persistently struggling to improve an imperfect reality is part of handing on a better starting point to future Americans.
In the end, the speaker says, what’s most important is not regretting that Americans can’t fix all of their country’s problems at once, but realizing that every American has a part to play in gradually making things better. If Americans can be “brave enough to be” the “light,” change will always come—even if it comes slowly and painfully. The hope of a better future, the speaker concludes, can motivate Americans to commit to the hard work of change.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-61
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Racial Justice and Black Strength
In this poem about her vision for the future of the U.S., Amanda Gorman pays special attention to the hope that the country can dismantle its legacy of racism. Through examples of Black American history both distant and recent—from slavery to the 2020 George Floyd protests—the speaker holds up Black Americans as an example of exactly the kind of committed citizens the country needs in order to create real change. Black American history, in this poem, is a perfect example of slow, painful progress—and a beacon of hope and inspiration.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker, herself a young Black woman, observes that she’s the descendant of slaves—and that now she’s reciting her own poetry at a presidential inauguration! Her own story, then, makes it clear that Black Americans have come a long way. And the speaker refers to her Black forebears not only directly (mentioning her enslaved ancestors and her own mother) but also stylistically: at the end of the poem, she borrows sentence structure from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and language from Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise.” In doing so, she suggests that generations of Black Americans have worked together to bring her (and the country) to this moment in history.
Just because Black Americans have come a long way, however, doesn’t mean that the work of racial justice is complete. To that end, the speaker notes that the “norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn’t always ‘justice,’” and that “quiet isn’t always peace.” These lines gesture to the upsurge of recent racial justice movements like Black Lives Matter, which insist that the U.S. can’t just carry on with business as usual while Black Americans suffer under persistent institutional racism. Every American, the speaker suggests, must confront the American legacy of racist injustice in the country is to move forward: being American means taking on “the past we step into and how we repair it.”
Black American history provides myriad examples of this kind of brave, persistent reckoning. Through her references to Black persistence and pride—and to the deeply ingrained racism the U.S. is still working through—the speaker suggests that Black Americans provide a model for how America as a whole can learn to confront its failings. Black Americans, the speaker implies, are expert “hill-climbers,” refusing to lose hope in spite of how incrementally the U.S. changes its ways.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 2-5
- Line 10
- Line 14
- Lines 19-23
- Lines 49-54
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Hill We Climb”
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Lines 1-7
When day comes, ...
... we do it."The Hill We Climb" begins with a sunrise in the dark. "When day comes," the speaker asks, "[...] where can we find light in this never-ending shade?" This symbolic sunrise is the dawn of a new era for the U.S.—a country, that, as the speaker says, has been going through a particularly painful period of its history. Right from the start, she speaks as one member of a "we," a collective that "carr[ies] loss" together.
"The Hill We Climb" is what's known as an "occasional poem," a poem composed to commemorate a specific event. In this case, that event was the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden as the President of the United States. With that in mind, the reader can form some pretty specific ideas about what the "never-ending shade" the speaker laments might represent as she goes on:
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace,
and the norms and notions of what "just" is isn't always justice.These lines gesture to the turbulent period of history leading up to Biden's inauguration. The year before, the U.S. went through not just the global trauma of the coronavirus pandemic, but a reckoning with its racist history: in the wake of George Floyd's murder at the hands of police, the country experienced a massive awakening, and the streets were full of people protesting police brutality against Black Americans. The speaker's pun—"the norms and notions of what 'just' is isn't always justice"—subtly alludes to these protests, and to many citizens' understanding that business as usual means oppression for the country's Black population.
While the speaker is working in free verse here, not using a regular meter or rhyme scheme, she still carefully shapes the sounds of her words. Listen to the rhythm and rhyme in these lines, for example:
And yet, | the dawn | is ours | before | we knew it.
Somehow we | do it.Here, the speaker moves from a steady, lilting line of iambs (metrical feet that go da-DUM) into a short, sharp line that uses two front-loaded feet: a dactyl (DUM-da-da) and a trochee (DUM-da). The end-stops here mean that each of these lines gets its own little pocket of space. And the matching end rhymes on "knew it" and "do it" connect these rhythmically different lines together. All together, these changing patterns make the speaker's tone feel deliberate and masterful: she's using stress and sound to mirror her ideas.
And here, those ideas come down to one short, solid statement: in spite of all the pain and suffering Americans have endured in recent years, "Somehow [they] do it": they keep going anyway. This mood of grounded, gradual, persistent progress will shape the whole poem.
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Lines 8-10
Somehow we’ve weathered ...
... reciting for one. -
Lines 11-14
And yes, we ...
... conditions of man. -
Lines 15-24
And so we ...
... again sow division. -
Lines 25-29
Scripture tells us ...
... we repair it. -
Lines 30-36
We’ve seen a ...
... eyes on us. -
Lines 37-41
This is the ...
... prevail over us?’ -
Lines 42-47
We will not ...
... our children’s birthright. -
Lines 48-54
So let us ...
... reconcile, and recover. -
Lines 55-61
In every known ...
... to be it.
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“The Hill We Climb” Symbols
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The Hill
The hill of the poem's title symbolizes the challenge of building a fairer, freer, better America. To "climb" this hill, the poem suggests, Americans have to accept the fact that it's steep! In other words, progress doesn't come easily, and the symbolic climb up this hill will likely involve as much defeat, weariness, and grief as triumph. But while climbing is difficult, it's not impossible, and the speaker imagines an eventual "victory" that doesn't "lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we've made." In other words, success can be found on the symbolic hilltop where all Americans can live together in harmony.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 27: “That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.”
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Light and Darkness
In the poem, light and darkness take on their traditional symbolism: light represents new beginnings, hope, and rebirth, while darkness represents suffering and confusion.
In particular, the poem uses images of fresh sunlight to suggest a new beginning for the country (and, more specifically, the start of Joe Biden's presidency, the occasion this poem celebrates). This kind of "dawn" comes "before we knew it," the speaker says: relief from suffering arrives as reliably as sunrise.
That "dawn" also does away with "never-ending shade": the feeling that the country might always suffer the "darkness" of hatred and division. The speaker's use of the word "shade" hints that this kind of darkness only comes because something (such as racism, political division, and/or hopelessness) is getting in the way of the sunlight!
At the end of the poem, the speaker brings all these symbols together:
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.Here, the "light" of hope doesn't just appear to Americans: it is Americans, working together to make the U.S. a better place for all.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 1: “where can we find light in this never-ending shade”
- Line 6: “And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it.”
- Lines 57-61: “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.”
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“The Hill We Climb” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
"The Hill We Climb" is overflowing with alliteration, which helps to develop its themes of unity and struggle (and also simply makes the poem sound all the more striking and memorable!). Through its music and meaning, the alliteration in this poem suggests that the speaker dreams of a more harmonious country—one that's worth fighting for.
For instance, take a look at the woven alliterative sounds in this passage from the middle of the poem:
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
[...]
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.Here, alliteration draws striking connections between contrasting ideas: harm and harmony, grief and growth, hurt and hope, being tired and trying all the same. The repeated initial sounds here underline the speaker's big point: the difficulties and the triumphs of progress go hand in hand. (Also note that these lines are clear examples of parallelism and antithesis!)
Towards the end of the poem, meanwhile, the speaker uses alliteration to make her hopeful vision of the future in lines 47-49 sound rapturously musical:
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 from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.The gentle but insistent alliterative /m/, /l/, /ch/, and /w/ sounds here mirror the speaker's hope for a "legacy" of tender "love." But that legacy won't come without work, and the bold /b/ sounds in "behind" and "better" ring with the armored strength of the speaker's "bronze-pounded" chest.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 3: “braved,” “belly,” “beast”
- Line 5: “norms,” “notions,” “just,” “justice”
- Line 8: “weathered,” “witnessed”
- Line 11: “polished,” “pristine”
- Line 14: “compose,” “country,” “committed,” “cultures,” “colors,” “characters,” “conditions”
- Line 16: “future,” “first”
- Line 18: “harm,” “harmony”
- Line 20: “grieved,” “grew”
- Line 21: “hurt,” “hoped”
- Line 22: “tired,” “tried”
- Line 23: “tied,” “together”
- Line 26: “blade,” “bridges”
- Line 31: “destroy,” “delaying,” “democracy”
- Line 33: “democracy,” “delayed”
- Line 34: “defeated”
- Line 35: “truth,” “trust”
- Line 41: “possibly,” “prevail,” “possibly,” “prevail”
- Line 42: “march,” “move”
- Line 43: “bruised,” “benevolent,” “but,” “bold,” “fierce,” “free”
- Line 44: “interrupted,” “intimidation,” “inaction,” “inertia,” “inheritance”
- Line 45: “blunders,” “become,” “burdens”
- Line 47: “merge,” “mercy,” “might,” “might,” “love,” “legacy,” “change,” “children’s”
- Line 48: “behind,” “better”
- Line 49: “breath,” “bronze,” “wounded,” “world,” “wondrous”
- Line 51: “forefathers,” “first,” “realized,” “revolution”
- Line 53: “sun,” “south”
- Line 54: “rebuild,” “reconcile,” “recover”
- Line 55: “known,” “nook,” “nation,” “corner,” “country”
- Line 56: “battered,” “beautiful”
- Line 57: “step,” “shade”
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Assonance
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Allusion
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Anaphora
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Repetition
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End-Stopped Line
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Parallelism
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Antithesis
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Pun
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Metaphor
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"The Hill We Climb" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Pristine
- Arms
- Sow
- Scripture
- Periodically
- Inception
- Prevail
- Benevolent
- Inertia
- Blunders
- Bronze-pounded
- Reconcile
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(Location in poem: Line 11: “we are far from polished, far from pristine,”)
Perfect, spotless.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Hill We Climb”
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Form
"The Hill We Climb" is a free verse poem: it doesn't use a regular rhyme scheme or meter, and it's presented as one long stanza. Gorman's use of free verse, her personal tone, and her rhythmic, playful language connects "The Hill We Climb" to contemporary forms of performance poetry, like slam poetry. But as a speaker at a major public event, Gorman is also working in the tradition of occasional poetry, poetry written to celebrate a milestone. Elizabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for Day," written for Barack Obama's inauguration, is one comparable occasional poem.
The reader should note that at the time this guide is being written, there are a lot of different versions of "The Hill We Climb" floating around! Because the poem hasn't officially been published yet, we can't be sure exactly how Gorman wants it to look on the page. For now, we're using The Guardian's transcript.
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Meter
"The Hill We Climb" is written in free verse, which means it doesn't use a regular meter. But while there's no standard pattern here, the poem does use plenty of rhythm and stress for effect.
For instance, look at these punchy, powerful lines:
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.Here, the poem uses strong stresses to draw attention to meaningfully matched pairs of words. Placing emphasis on "grieved" and "grew," "hurt" and "hoped," "tired" and "tried," the speaker asks readers and listeners to reflect on the way these concepts might be related. The stress pattern here points out that grief and growth can go hand in hand.
Overall, the poem's lack of a regular meter keeps it feeling fresh, interesting, and musical from beginning to end. The speaker can stress words as she sees fit, imbuing the lines with natural emotion from start to finish.
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Rhyme Scheme
While "The Hill We Climb" doesn't use any steady rhyme scheme, it does use a lot of rhyme!
Take a look at the rhymes in the first seven lines:
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’ve 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.At the beginning of the poem, the speaker uses rhyming pairs or couplets, but often shapes them in innovative ways. After an initial perfect rhyme between "shade" and "wade," she uses a slant rhyme between "beast" and "peace," and then an internal rhyme between "'just' is" and "justice." These playful variations make the speaker sound masterfully in control of her language right from the start, drawing the reader's attention to the way she's using sound to make meaning—for instance, in that pun on "'just' is" and "justice."
The speaker often uses internal rhyme to make the poem feel connected and coherent. Take a look at the internal rhyme in lines 24 and 25, for instance:
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.The internal rhymes here set up a contrast between "know defeat" and "sow division," and smooth the transition into a new idea by linking "division" in line 24 with "envision" in line 25.
The speaker often returns to sequences of end rhymes when she wants to make a strong point. The poem's closing lines are a good example:
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.Here, the connection between "free it," "see it," and "be it" shapes the speaker's final idea: the "light" of hope can be something external, something that needs to be freed and seen—but it's also something internal, something that all Americans can challenge themselves to "be."
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“The Hill We Climb” Speaker
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The speaker in this poem is Amanda Gorman herself. She refers to her own background directly, celebrating the fact that "a skinny Black girl descended from slaves" is reciting a poem at the inauguration of a U.S. president. But she reveals her character indirectly, too, through her language and her attitudes. Readers get the sense that the speaker is a grounded, realistic optimist, who believes that change is both possible and difficult. She takes inspiration from the Bible and from great Black thinkers like Maya Angelou and Martin Luther King, Jr. And she feels huge pride and hope in American possibility.
Gorman's choice to refer directly to her own life story fits right in with some of the poem's biggest ideas. To really change the U.S. for the better, Gorman suggests, all Americans have to see their own choices and their own lives as part of a gradual collective effort. In talking about her own life, Gorman provides an example of how far the country has come already: there's a time in living memory when it would have been totally unthinkable for a young black woman to perform at a presidential inauguration.
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“The Hill We Climb” Setting
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This poem has a literal, real-life setting: the inauguration ceremony at which Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States. The speaker alludes to this setting directly when she mentions that, having dreamed of being president herself, she now "find[s] herself reciting for one"! This was a poem written to be performed on a particular day in a particular place, and that day and place are significant: they show that, as the speaker says, enough has changed in America since its inception that a young Black woman can find herself performing on a national stage.
But the poem also has a broader setting: the United States itself. Here, the speaker draws both on the work of writers like Walt Whitman (who chronicled the sweep of the American landscape in poems like "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd") and activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (who evoked scenes from across the country at the end of his great "I Have a Dream" speech). When, at the end of the poem, the speaker imagines citizens "ris[ing]" from landscapes all across the nation, her images of distinct American scenery underline one of her major points: America's power and beauty lies in its differences, and its potential to bring those differences together in harmony.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Hill We Climb”
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Literary Context
Amanda Gorman (1998-present) is the first National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. Born in Los Angeles, Gorman learned to love poetry as a child when she found writing and reading poems helped her overcome a sound sensitivity and a speech impediment. She went on to study sociology at Harvard, and published a first volume of poetry, The One For Whom Food is Not Enough, in 2015. As of this writing, "The Hill We Climb" hasn't yet been officially published—but it's due out in 2021 in a collection called, appropriately enough, The Hill We Climb.
Gorman has said that she thinks of the poet Maya Angelou (whose "Still I Rise" she alludes to at the end of "The Hill We Climb") as a "spirit grandmother," a presiding figure of inspiration and comfort. She also admires the poet Tracy K. Smith, the 52nd U.S. Poet Laureate, and the writer and activist Marianne Deborah Williamson. Her poetry's bold images and clear language reflect these influences, but she also draws stylistically on contemporary forms of performance poetry, like slam poetry.
As an occasional poem, "The Hill We Climb" follows in the footsteps of poems like Elizabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day" (written for Obama's inauguration), and even belongs to a longer tradition of commemorative poems like Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." In sometimes very different ways, occasional poems celebrate a moment that needs to be remembered, pausing to look back at what's happened and forward at what's to come.
"The Hill We Climb" certainly seems to have risen to the occasion: the poem earned rapturous worldwide praise from the moment Gorman performed it.
Historical Context
Amanda Gorman performed this poem at Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration as the 46th President of the United States. Only a week before, the U.S. had undergone a serious shock: supporters of the outgoing Donald Trump had stormed the Capitol Building in a bid to stop the official certification of Biden's electoral win.
This crisis in American democracy was the capstone on a year of traumas—and on an era that exposed deep divisions in the American population. In 2020 alone, the world was ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, and the police murder of George Floyd sparked massive worldwide protests demanding justice for Black Americans. Questions of how (and whether!) American citizens care for each other became contentious political issues.
Gorman's poem speaks to the despair, sadness, and fear that many Americans felt in the wake of these upheavals. But it also speaks to the hope of better and stabler times to come. The poem's realism about how slowly progress comes is tempered with a persistent belief that it does come, in the end.
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More “The Hill We Climb” Resources
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External Resources
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Gorman's Website — Visit Gorman's own website and learn more about her life and work.
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A Brief Biography — Read a short biography of Gorman from the Academy of American Poets.
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Gorman in The Guardian — Read a newspaper article about Amanda Gorman's performance of this poem at Joe Biden's inauguration. The poem earned rapturous praise not just in the U.S., but all around the world.
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Gorman Performs the Poem — Watch Gorman's powerful performance of the poem at Joe Biden's inauguration.
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An Interview with Gorman — Read an interview Gorman gave to National Public Radio about this poem.
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