Climbing Towards Justice: Amanda Gorman鈥檚 Poetic Vision of the Nation
Amanda Gorman鈥檚 鈥淭he Hill We Climb鈥� powerfully delivers ideas of social justice through uplifting assertions and visuals of a gorgeous landscape鈥攕ynonymous to her dreams for our nation.
By Jesse Julian
DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II
Delivered as a spoken word poem at Biden鈥檚 presidential inauguration in 2021, Amanda Gorman鈥檚 鈥溾�� uplifts the nation to pursue a just democracy and better country for upcoming generations. Gorman鈥檚 skillful free verse carries a tone of democratic eloquence with a vernacular that catches the ears of the general audience鈥攕he speaks directly at this crowd present at the inauguration. Her rhythmic mix of internal and end rhyme also carries listeners through the poem, steadily feeding her powerful insight. She sets the scene with an antithetical play-on-words: 鈥渨hat just is, isn鈥檛 always justice.鈥� Later, she inverts the familiar Preamble of the U.S. Constitution when stating, 鈥淲e, the successors of a country.鈥� Gorman challenges traditional notions of justice and asks listeners to re-envision this pursuit moving forward.
The pursuit of justice requires the nation to contextualize it in regards to each human being鈥檚 diverse needs. Gorman strives for this commitment to each human in her alliterative phrasing of 鈥渁ll cultures, colors, characters and conditions.鈥� Furthering this, justice is unattainable without our bridges and connections to each other, which constitute the founding blocks of our country. In her fifth stanza, Gorman extends Sylvia Plath鈥檚 famous fig tree metaphor from The Bell Jar to imply that each human鈥檚 individual future relies on the stable formation of our collective nation.
While the first half most directly addresses the need for racial equality and social justice, the second half reflects on the successes of activism and change through rich environmental imagery. The end of 鈥淭he Hill We Climb鈥� reflects this descent from a tumultuous battle鈥攆rom a difficult hill that our nation must climb and succeed over. Gorman addresses the determination of mankind in the face of turmoil through the use of chiasmus, claiming the superiority of 鈥渦s鈥� over catastrophe: 鈥渨hile once we asked how can we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us.鈥� She performs a sweeping acknowledgment of the diverse lands our country encompasses through vivid imagery, listing off the 鈥済olden hills of the West,鈥� the 鈥渨indswept Northeast,鈥� the 鈥渓ake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states,鈥� and the 鈥渟unbaked South.鈥� Her use of environmental landscapes envisions and embraces a sense of common responsibility from each region to the preservation of nature. The natural world physically represents our nation, an important truth that Gorman powerfully reminds listeners of when calling upon them for action.
Gorman鈥檚 work utilizes rhetoric that intertwines environmental justice with racial justice鈥攁 topic that Schiller addressed at a similar time, during the Environmental Racism Summit and 鈥淐hallenging Environmental Racism鈥� Event in the spring of 2021. Justice requires interdisciplinary efforts towards combatting structural weaknesses and vulnerabilities, which Gorman beautifully embodies through her activism and poetry.
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