U.S. Inauguration: Amanda Gorman's Poem Receives High Praise (VIDEO)

American talk show host Oprah Winfrey, wife of U.S. former president Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and others took to Twitter to applaud Amanda Gorman for the poem she delivered during the US President's inauguration on Wednesday.

Amanda Gorman's six-minute poem at the inauguration ceremony, 'The Hill We Climb', referenced the Capitol Hil riots earlier this month, but also underlined the theme of unity set out by the new president, Joe Biden.

With her performance, she becomes the youngest ever poet to perform at a U.S. presidential inauguration at 22 years old. 

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She is the country's first youth poet laureate in 2017.

I have never been prouder to see another young woman rise! Brava Brava, @TheAmandaGorman! Maya Angelou is cheering—and so am I. pic.twitter.com/I5HLE0qbPs

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) January 20, 2021

With her strong and poignant words, @TheAmandaGorman reminds us of the power we each hold in upholding our democracy. Keep shining, Amanda! I can't wait to see what you do next. ? #BlackGirlMagic

Photo credit: Rob Carr pic.twitter.com/C2cf0U5iEj

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) January 20, 2021

Wasn't @TheAmandaGorman’s poem just stunning? She's promised to run for president in 2036 and I for one can't wait. pic.twitter.com/rahEClc6k2

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 20, 2021

“Even as we grieved we grew...” Amanda Gorman’s powerful poetry blessing us #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/1DfiP9Ynaf

— Natasha S. Alford (@NatashaSAlford) January 20, 2021

Maya Angelou moved us with “Pulse of the Morning” in ‘93 so Amanda Gorman could inspire us with “The Hill We Climb” in ‘21 #fullcircle #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/HRjp4UlfVq

— Natasha S. Alford (@NatashaSAlford) January 20, 2021

Speaking before the inauguration, Amanda said: "Poetry is a weapon, it is an instrument of social change. Poetry is one of the most political arts out there."

The young poet, like Biden, suffered from a speech impediment as a child. Biden struggled with stuttering, something that he still manages, and Gorman couldn’t pronounce certain sounds, NPR observes. She nevertheless became LA’s first Youth Poet Laureate at age 16 and, while studying three years later at Harvard University, was named the first National Youth Poet Laureate.

You can watch a video of Gorman reading “The Hill We Climb” below. Read also the text of the poem, as transcribed by Los Angeles Magazine.

 

“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman
When the 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, somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.

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. And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect, we are striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colours, characters and conditions of man.

So we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony for all.

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: that even as we grieved, we grew, even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we tired, we tried, that we’ll forever be tied together victorious, 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 should make them afraid. If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all of the bridges we’ve made.

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That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it. That would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy, and this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can periodically be delayed, but it can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith, we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us, this is the era of just redemption we feared in its inception we did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves, so while once we asked how can we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us.

We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free, we will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, our blunders become their burden. But one thing is certain: 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, we will rise from the golden hills of the West, we will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution, we will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked South, we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known nook of our nation in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful, when the 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.