The poet emphasizes the need to not dwell on the challenges of the past but focus on how they could handle future catastrophes. It shows the dangers and threats the country was facing. “The line belly and the best could also be a biblical allusion to Jonah who had to survive in the belly of a fish and survived through it all. Gorman also takes the audience through the horrors they have experienced as represented by the use of lines such as “a sea we must wade” to show the troubles they have to deal with and “belly of the beast (Lines 1-20). The country’s state is also stressed by the use of words such as shade to symbolize the dark moments experienced in the country (Gorman lines 21-40). It would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.īut while democracy can be periodically delayed, “We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, The poem shows that the country is in a fragile state, for example, in the verses below.

The poem alludes to the challenges due to the unrest, racial injustices Coronavirus and the country’s economy, and Trump’s administration. The four years were characterized by police murders, the murder of George Floyd, and insurrection at the capital. The poem is hopeful and highlights the issues faced in the United States in 2021, such as what had happened in the last four years prior to the inauguration in the statehouse and the days closer to the inauguration. The Harvard graduate of sociology was selected to perform at the inaugural by the Presidential Inaugural for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Gorman is a National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest inaugural poet in the history of the U.S. The poem is about the challenges faced by the country due to equality for all people and the hope for the country to unite in order to heal from what they had all gone through. Amanda Gorman wrote and recited “The Hill We Climb” performed during Biden Harris’s inauguration due to the experiences America was going through at that time, such as political, social, and economic issues and challenges due to COVID-19.

The hill we climb meaning