Youngest inaugural poet: ‘Even as we grieved, we grew’
NEW YORK — In one of the inauguration’s most talked about moments, poet Amanda Gorman summoned images dire and triumphant Wednesday as she called out to the world “even as we grieved, we grew.”
In language referencing Biblical scripture and at times echoing the oratory of John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gorman, 22, read with urgency and assertion as she began by asking “Where can we find light/In this never-ending shade?” and used her own poetry and life story as an answer.
The poem’s title, “The Hill We Climb,” suggested labor and transcendence.
“We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
Of such a terrifying hour. But within it we’ve found the power
To author a new chapter, Tooffer hope and laughter to ourselves.”
It was an extraordinary task for Gorman, the youngest of the poets who have read at presidential inaugurations since Kennedy invited Robert Frost in 1961, with other predecessors including Maya Angelou and Elizabeth Alexander.
A native and resident of Los Angeles and the country’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, Gorman had said that she would not mention Jan. 6 specifically, but her reference was unmistakable:
“We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed,
It can never be permanently defeated.”
Invited to the inaugural last month by first lady Jill Biden, Gorman has read at official occasions before, including a July 4 celebration when she was backed by the Boston Pops Orchestra.
She has also made clear her desire to appear at a future inaugural, in a much greater capacity, an ambition she put in her poem.
“We, the successors of a country and a time,
Where a skinny black girl, Descended from slaves andraised by a single mother,
Can dream of becoming president,
Only to find herself reciting for one.”