Last week, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States. As part of the ceremonies, a 22-year-old African-American poet, Amanda Gorman, captivated the nation with a stirring poem about unity entitled, “The Hill We Climb.” Ms. Gorman is the current National Youth Poet Laureate who was handpicked by the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, to deliver the address. She recited her poem in a powerful voice with poise and gravitas far beyond her years, using expertly choreographed hand and arm gestures, transforming the simple reading of a poem into a thrilling display of literary and artistic talent. Ms. Gorman’s performance was as bright as her yellow dress and as exciting as her red headband. In a word, she was brilliant.
In my view, brilliance is never singular; rather it is the combination of many talents and visions that create an extraordinary work of art. The Beatles were not only incredible musicians, they were genius lyricists and were aided by a visionary producer, George Martin. Shakespeare was not only a brilliant dramatist but was also a master of wordplay and created plays that touched on universal themes. In her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman combines slam poetry, rap, free verse, performance art and politics in a way no one has ever done before.
In my blog today, I would like to humbly offer an analysis of why her poem was so brilliant. There have been many insightful commentaries online in the past few days documenting her subtle references to past political leaders and poets, as well as to the Trump presidency and the Capitol riots. I will mention some of those references in passing, but I will try to provide an analysis from a linguist’s point of view. I believe she deftly employed seven distinct rhetorical strategies in her poem: 1) rhymes, 2) alliteration 3) repetition, 4) nature metaphors, 5) journey metaphors, 6) contrast and chiasmus, and 7) themes of unification. I provide examples from her poem, with specific words and phrases under study in italics. You can see the performance of her inaugural poem on YouTube here, and read the transcript here.
1) Rhymes: Ms. Gorman uses a wide variety of rhyme schemes in her poem. In some cases, she uses simple monosyllabic end rhymes such as in the opening lines of her poem, rhyming shade with wade, and beast with peace.
Example: “When 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.”
She repeats this first rhyme later with blade and made and with grew and true.
Example: “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.”
Example: “Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.”
She also uses internal rhymes in some instances, sometimes with slant rhymes, as with tired, tried and tied. (Slant rhymes occur when two words or phrases have similar sounds such as bat and back as compared to exact rhymes such as bat and cat.)
Example: “That even as we hurt, we hoped; that even as we tired, we tried; that we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.”
Moreover, she uses more complex multisyllabic end rhymes and internal rhymes throughout the poem. In one example, she uses slant rhymes with redemption and inception.
Example: “This is the era of just redemption.
We feared it at its inception.”
She also rhymes succeeded and defeated.
Example: “And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.”
In one exceptional section, she creates a long series of rhymed phrases or parts of words as with dare it, American, inherit, repair it, and share it.
Example: “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 forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.”
One may question the inclusion of the word American as a rhyme in this series, but if you listen to her live performance, she seems to specifically emphasize the first three syllables of the word, and destresses the first syllable.
At the beginning of the poem, while she is talking about the dawn, she creates a pair of multisyllabic rhymes with knew it and do it. And then at the end of the poem, while referring back to her metaphor of the dawn, she repeats this multisyllabic pattern with greater emphasis as she rhymes free it, see it and be it.
Example: “And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow, we do it.”
Example: “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.”
One last slant rhyme deserves special mention. At the beginning of the poem she forces a rhyme between the phrase just is with justice. I believe here she is referencing the quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. that has been in the news lately following the Black Lives Matter protests: “True peace in not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
Example: “We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.
In the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice.”
2) Alliteration: One way that poets call attention to a section of a poem is to begin each of a series of words with the same vowel or consonant sound. In one section, Ms. Gorman uses seven words in a row all beginning with a hard “c” sound. Her list of traits of the country she is hoping for is an overarching theme of the poem, at the same time referencing Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote, also alliterative, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Example: “We are striving to forge our union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures,colors, characters and conditions of man.”
3) Repetition: Ms. Gorman also uses repetition to emphasize certain points in her poem. The use of repetition is common in sermons and political speeches, most notably by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech and in Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise.” Towards the end of her poem, Ms. Gorman repeats the phrase “we will rise” four times. Interestingly, she also introduces this section of the poem with a variant, “we will raise” and follows the section with another variant, “we will rebuild.” It’s brilliant poetic structure. In this same section of the poem, she increases the intensity of the repetition by including a series of compound adjectives – bronze-pounded, gold-limned, wind-swept, lake-rimmed, and sun-baked.
Example: “With every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the gold-limned hills of the West.
We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked 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.”
4) Nature Metaphors: There is a long tradition in poetry going back hundreds of years in which poets describe situations in terms of ordinary people in touch with nature. As I have argued many times in this blog, we often think in terms of our common experiences with the world at large. Thus, we immediately understand images of hills, mountains, rivers, the sun and moon, etc. I believe that Ms. Gorman entitled her poem, “The Hill We Climb” to tap into this common experience. She uses other nature metaphors throughout the poem, reminiscent of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s political speeches. She begins the poem describing the problem as a dark night turning into a bright day, in the phrase “when day comes” and she follows that with several mentions of shade changing to light. In one instance, she describes the challenge of Americans overcoming their divided country as crossing an ocean or sea, and she follows this with an allusion to the Biblical story of Jonah swallowed by a whale, referred to as surviving being in the belly of the beast.
Example: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
Example: “The loss we carry, a sea we must wade.
We’ve braved the belly of the beast.”
Later in that same section of the poem, she refers to the dawn of a new day, after having metaphorically weathered a storm.
Example: “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.”
Later in the poem she repeats the metaphor of climbing a hill, and compares the challenges of our country as being lost in a forest, while anticipating moving from the forest to an open area sometimes called a glade.
Example: “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 forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.”
More importantly, she ends the poem with the repetitions of “we will rise” described earlier.
5) Journey Metaphors: In addition to metaphors of nature, Ms. Gorman uses several journey metaphors. These types of metaphors describe the movement of group of people from a crisis to the resolution of the problem in a notable period of growth. Not surprisingly in a speech about unifying the country, she weaves journey metaphors into her poem in several ways.
Movement from night to day and dark to light.
Example: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?”
Example: “When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light.”
Movement from low to high.
Example: “And so, we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”
Example: “With every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”
Example: “We will rise from the gold-limned hills of the West.
We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked South.”
Movement from backwards to forwards.
Example: “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.”
Movement from broken to whole or injured to healthy.
Example: “Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.”
Example: “With every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”
Example: “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.”
Movement from the past to the future.
Example: “In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.”
Example: “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.”
Example: “So, let us leave behind a country better than one we were left.”
6) Contrast and Chiasmus: Another way of showing movement or progress in a poem is by setting up contrasts between two events or situations. A chiasmus (pronounced kye-AS-mus) is a specific type of contrast in which two concepts are presented in reverse order in one sentence. Perhaps the most famous example is from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address when he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” In her poem, Ms. Gorman sets up several of these types of chiasmus. In one instance, she uses a clever contrast between two meanings of the words arms, one as weapons and one as human limbs.
Contrast
Example: “That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped; that even as we tired, we tried; that we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.”
Example: “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.”
Chiasmus
Example: “We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.”
Example: “In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.”
Example: “So, while once we asked: ‘How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?’ Now we assert, ‘How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?’”
7) Themes of Unification: As a grammar nerd, I could tell from the first three words of the poem that she was going to be talking about unification. Linguists and writers know that it is not always what one says that is important, it’s what one doesn’t say. She opens the poem with the phrase, “when day comes…”. Note that she doesn’t say “the day” with the definite article or “a day” with an indefinite article. Indefinite and definite articles used with nouns indicate a specific concept being introduced or referenced, respectively. We can say, “a day I’ll never forget” or “the day I was late for work.” By not including any article, Ms. Gorman indicates the concept as day as a natural phenomenon as in the idea of night follows day or summer follows spring. In this way, she sets up the entire poem about universal themes, rather than specific issues. She uses this idea of a new day coming at the beginning and the end of the poem to frame or bookend the entire speech.
Example: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?”
Example: “When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid.”
Beyond this rhetorical strategy, there is another omission worth mentioning. She never uses the first-person singular pronoun, I. Rather she always uses the first-person plural pronoun, we. Admittedly, most poets do not write about themselves so there is no reason to use first person pronouns, but even when Ms. Gorman is referring to herself, she uses the third person. I believe she does this deliberately to remove herself as the agent in the change she describes; rather she asks that we all work together to achieve those goals, not any one person individually.
Example: “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.”
She adds another layer of emphasis to this sense of unity in her final line by saying that we not only have to see the light, but that we must be it, perhaps as a nod to the famous line attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Example: “If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
As a final rhetorical technique, she recognizes that it is not just the politicians in Washington DC who can make the changes. It must come from people all across the country. Thus, she specifically mentions different parts of the country, every nook and corner, along with the powerful compound adjectives discussed earlier.
Example: “We will rise from the gold-limned hills of the West.
We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our countryour people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful.”
Summary: Needless to say, this young poetess has crafted an incredibly powerful and uplifting poem. By using a variety of rhetorical strategies, she outlines how we can heal our divided country and move forward. Interestingly, she never mentions any politicians or political parties by name, nor any specific national issues. She makes allusions to the riots at the Capitol on January 6th, but does not give any specifics. I assume she is talking about reuniting Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives and rich and poor Americans. She does make several allusions to slavery so perhaps we can also assume she is hoping for racial equality, and perhaps justice for all disadvantaged groups, as she says, “all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.” One can only hope her dreams of a better future for these United States can become a reality.