Poet Amanda Gorman, 22, captures ‘bruised, but whole’ US at inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
- ‘The Hill We Climb’, by the youngest inaugural poet in US history, offers a hopeful vision for a deeply divided country
- Gorman joins the likes of Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and Elizabeth Alexander with a powerful reading at the swearing-in of the new president and vice-president
Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet in US history to mark the transition of presidential power, offered a hopeful vision for a deeply divided country on Wednesday with her poem The Hill We Climb.
Gorman, 22, a Los Angeles resident, joined the ranks of previous inaugural poets Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and Elizabeth Alexander, with a powerful performance at the swearing-in of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
“Being American is more than a pride we inherit. It’s the past we step into and how we repair it,” Gorman said, in a short poem that was greeted with a hail of critical acclaim on social media.
“We will not march back to what was. We move to what shall be, a country that is bruised, but whole. Benevolent, but bold. Fierce and free.”
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Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman recites poem at Joe Biden's US presidential inauguration ceremony
Speaking on the steps of the US Capitol just two weeks after a violent group of Trump supporters laid siege to the seat of American government with Confederate flags, pipe bombs and a noose, Gorman said that Americans could rise above the hatred.
“While democracy can be temporarily delayed, it can never be permanently defeated,” Gorman said.
“Let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left,” she said. “We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”
“The new dawn blooms as we free it,” said Gorman, who was named the first US National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017.
As it happened: Joe Biden sworn in as president
John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama also had poets read at their inauguration.
Critical acclaim poured from across the country and the political spectrum, including Republican strategist Lincoln Project and Stacey Abrams, the Democratic organiser and gubernatorial candidate from Georgia, who said, “Amanda Gorman’s message serves as an inspiration to us all”.
Singer Sheryl Crow tweeted: “If the future looks like inaugural poet laureate Amanda Gorman, we are in good shape. Wise and inspiring.”
