That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare. 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. Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division. That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.Īnd so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. 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.Īnd, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.Īnd yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? In addition, here’s a transcript of “The Hill We Climb” via Rev. history, recite her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden's inauguration. Watch Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. In case you missed it, or just want to listen again, here’s a video of Gorman’s Inauguration day reading.

Gorman’s poem also celebrated the strength and beauty of the country, while acknowledging the deep divisions we still have to fight to overcome. The poem featured two allusions to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” calling out the song “One Last Time” by referencing that “everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree” and the more popular line, “History has its eyes on you.” “So you can put that in your iCloud calendar.” “This is a long, long, faraway goal, but 2036 I am running for office to be president of the United States,” she said. Gorman is America’s first youth poet laureate, and in 2017 told the New York Times she was prepared to run for office. The 22-year-old Los Angeles native told NPR that she struggled with writing the poem for such a momentous occasion, and finished the last part of it on the night of January 6, after a pro-Trump mob of insurgents stormed the Capitol. Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in history on Wednesday afternoon, performing her powerful work “The Hill We Climb” as a part of President Joe Biden’s Inauguration ceremony.

Amanda gorman's poem the hill we climb