Mia Costales | News Editor
January 31, 2021
After a whirlwind election, Amanda Gorman delivered her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” a call to action for the American people. While it has become a tradition for a poem to be recited at the inauguration of democratic presidents, Gorman’s poem felt as though it carried the weight of the year’s past events in ways other poems have not. “The Hill We Climb” prophesizes Gorman’s and many others’ ideal America, “a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.”
Gorman poses the question: “we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” After a year as hectic as 2020, many have been struggling to find that light, whatever it may be. Gorman alludes to several events that have shaped the country this last year—mass Black Lives Matter protests prompted by George Floyd’s murder, the hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths, and more recently, the insurrection at the Capitol. However, as Gorman puts it, “we are [not] striving to form a union that is perfect. / We are striving to forge our union with purpose.”
More than anything, this poem serves as a symbol of unity. In a time where America is more divided than ever, Gorman stresses the importance of uniting the whole country and upholding democracy. She writes about a “delayed democracy,” a reference to the insurrection at the Capitol and, presumably, Trump’s entire presidency. She assures her audience that although these events are a minor setback in history, they do not define us:
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. This effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed,
it can never be permanently defeated.
Gorman’s words evoke feelings of patriotism, and encourage the American people to not only dream of a better future, but actively work to make that dream come true.
“After hearing Amanda Gorman’s poem, I felt deeply inspired about our future,” senior Kaya Moran said. “I think that if our generation can grow into people like her, we will be very powerful.”
While forging a new future, we must not forget the past that our country was built upon. Gorman asserts that we mustn’t “march back to what was, but move to what shall be.” She speaks of her childhood dreams of becoming president, a small “Black girl descended from slaves.” She reminds us that it is possible we may encounter defeat, but that never again will we foster division. Gorman ends with the same motif from the first stanza, that there will come a day where we will finally step out of the seemingly “never-ending shade.”
“I truly think that America will come upon some much better days in this new presidency, and Amanda Gorman perfectly put into words why our country as a whole must come together,” junior Malia Mayo said. “While we’ve experienced some extremely hard-hitting tragedies in this past year, we can only hope that it’ll only get better from here.”
To watch Amanda Gorman read “The Hill We Climb,” click here.
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