Amanda Gorman wrote and performed "The Hill We Climb" to celebrate the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States. The poem celebrates the U.S. not as a "perfect union," but as a country that has the grit to struggle with its all-too-real problems. Progress, the poem argues, doesn't happen all at once: it's a slow and sometimes painful "climb" up the "hill" of justice, a climb that takes patience and humility. To this poem's speaker, change is hard work, but it's always possible: dedicated Americans can see—and be!—the "light" of a better future.

• Read the full text of “The Hill We Climb”

• “The Hill We Climb” Summary

• “The Hill We Climb” Themes

  • 

    Hope and Progress as American Values

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-61
  • 

    Racial Justice and Black Strength

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-5
    • Line 10
    • Line 14
    • Lines 19-23
    • Lines 49-54

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Hill We Climb”

  • Lines 1-7

    When day comes, ...
    ... we do it.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-10

    Somehow we’ve weathered ...
    ... reciting for one.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-14

    And yes, we ...
    ... conditions of man.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 15-24

    And so we ...
    ... again sow division.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-29

    Scripture tells us ...
    ... we repair it.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 30-36

    We’ve seen a ...
    ... eyes on us.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 37-41

    This is the ...
    ... prevail over us?’

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 42-47

    We will not ...
    ... our children’s birthright.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 48-54

    So let us ...
    ... reconcile, and recover.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 55-61

    In every known ...
    ... to be it.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Hill We Climb” Symbols

  • 

    The Hill

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 27: “That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.”
  • 

    Light and Darkness

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “where can we find light in this never-ending shade”
    • Line 6: “And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it.”
    • Lines 57-61: “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, / if only we’re brave enough to see it. / If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

• “The Hill We Climb” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “braved,” “belly,” “beast”
    • Line 5: “norms,” “notions,” “just,” “justice”
    • Line 8: “weathered,” “witnessed”
    • Line 11: “polished,” “pristine”
    • Line 14: “compose,” “country,” “committed,” “cultures,” “colors,” “characters,” “conditions”
    • Line 16: “future,” “first”
    • Line 18: “harm,” “harmony”
    • Line 20: “grieved,” “grew”
    • Line 21: “hurt,” “hoped”
    • Line 22: “tired,” “tried”
    • Line 23: “tied,” “together”
    • Line 26: “blade,” “bridges”
    • Line 31: “destroy,” “delaying,” “democracy”
    • Line 33: “democracy,” “delayed”
    • Line 34: “defeated”
    • Line 35: “truth,” “trust”
    • Line 41: “possibly,” “prevail,” “possibly,” “prevail”
    • Line 42: “march,” “move”
    • Line 43: “bruised,” “benevolent,” “but,” “bold,” “fierce,” “free”
    • Line 44: “interrupted,” “intimidation,” “inaction,” “inertia,” “inheritance”
    • Line 45: “blunders,” “become,” “burdens”
    • Line 47: “merge,” “mercy,” “might,” “might,” “love,” “legacy,” “change,” “children’s”
    • Line 48: “behind,” “better”
    • Line 49: “breath,” “bronze,” “wounded,” “world,” “wondrous”
    • Line 51: “forefathers,” “first,” “realized,” “revolution”
    • Line 53: “sun,” “south”
    • Line 54: “rebuild,” “reconcile,” “recover”
    • Line 55: “known,” “nook,” “nation,” “corner,” “country”
    • Line 56: “battered,” “beautiful”
    • Line 57: “step,” “shade”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “day,” “find,” “light,” “never,” “ending,” “shade”
    • Line 10: “slaves,” “raised”
    • Line 11: “pristine”
    • Line 12: “mean,” “form,” “perfect”
    • Line 13: “forge,” “purpose”
    • Line 14: “country,” “committed,” “cultures,” “colors,” “conditions”
    • Line 16: “divide,” “aside”
    • Line 18: “harm,” “harmony”
    • Line 20: “even,” “grieved”
    • Line 22: “tired,” “tried”
    • Line 23: “forever,” “tied,” “together”
    • Line 24: “know,” “sow,” “division”
    • Line 25: “envision”
    • Line 26: “victory,” “blade,” “bridges,” “made”
    • Line 27: “glade”
    • Line 28: “American,” “inherit”
    • Line 31: “destroy,” “country,” “delaying,” “democracy”
    • Line 32: “very,” “nearly”
    • Line 33: “democracy,” “periodically,” “delayed”
    • Line 34: “permanently,” “defeated”
    • Line 39: “prepared,” “heirs,” “terrifying,” “hour”
    • Line 40: “power,” “chapter,” “laughter”
    • Line 43: “whole,” “bold”
    • Line 44: “interrupted,” “intimidation,” “generation”
    • Line 45: “blunders,” “become”
    • Line 47: “merge,” “mercy,” “might,” “might,” “right,” “love,” “becomes,” “birthright”
    • Line 48: “better,” “left”
    • Line 49: “every,” “breath,” “chest,” “wondrous,” “one”
    • Line 51: “north,” “forefathers”
    • Line 54: “rebuild,” “recover”
    • Line 55: “nation,” “country”
    • Line 56: “diverse,” “emerge”
    • Line 57: “day,” “shade,” “aflame,” “unafraid”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “We’ve braved the belly of the beast.”
    • Line 12: “that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.”
    • Line 25: “Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.”
    • Line 36: “history has its eyes on us.”
    • Lines 49-54: “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 wind-swept north-east 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.”

  • Anaphora

    

    

    

    

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    Where anaphora appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “We’ve braved”
    • Line 4: “We’ve learned”
    • Line 7: “Somehow we”
    • Line 8: “Somehow we’ve”
    • Line 11: “far from,” “far from”
    • Line 16: “We close”
    • Line 17: “We lay”
    • Line 18: “We seek”
    • Line 20: “That even”
    • Line 21: “That even”
    • Line 22: “That even”
    • Line 23: “That we’ll”
    • Line 28: “It’s because”
    • Line 29: “It’s the past”
    • Line 35: “In this truth, in this faith”
    • Line 38: “We feared”
    • Line 39: “We did not feel ”
    • Line 50: “We will rise”
    • Line 51: “We will rise”
    • Line 52: “We will rise”
    • Line 53: “We will rise”
    • Line 54: “We will rebuild”
    • Line 55: “In every,” “in every”
    • Line 60: “if only”
    • Line 61: “If only”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 16: “to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.”
    • Line 17: “We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.”
    • Line 36: “for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.”
    • Line 41: “So while once we asked, ‘How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?’ now we assert, ‘How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?’”
    • Line 47: “If we merge mercy with might, and might with right”
    • Line 48: “So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.”

  • End-Stopped Line

    

    

    

    

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    Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “shade?”
    • Line 2: “wade.”
    • Line 3: “beast.”
    • Line 5: “justice.”
    • Line 6: “knew it.”
    • Line 7: “do it.”
    • Line 9: “unfinished.”
    • Line 10: “one.”
    • Line 12: “perfect.”
    • Line 13: “purpose.”
    • Line 14: “man.”
    • Line 15: “us.”
    • Line 16: “aside.”
    • Line 17: “another.”
    • Line 18: “all.”
    • Line 19: “true:”
    • Line 20: “grew.”
    • Line 21: “hoped.”
    • Line 22: “tried.”
    • Line 23: “victorious.”
    • Line 24: “division.”
    • Line 25: “afraid.”
    • Line 26: “made.”
    • Line 27: “dare.”
    • Line 28: “inherit.”
    • Line 29: “repair it.”
    • Line 30: “share it.”
    • Line 31: “democracy.”
    • Line 32: “succeeded.”
    • Line 34: “defeated.”
    • Line 36: “us.”
    • Line 37: “redemption.”
    • Line 38: “inception.”
    • Line 40: “ourselves.”
    • Line 41: “us?’”
    • Line 42: “be:”
    • Line 43: “free.”
    • Line 44: “generation.”
    • Line 45: “burdens.”
    • Line 46: “certain:”
    • Line 47: “birthright.”
    • Line 48: “left.”
    • Line 49: “one.”
    • Line 50: “west.”
    • Line 51: “revolution.”
    • Line 52: “states.”
    • Line 53: “south.”
    • Line 54: “recover.”
    • Line 56: “beautiful.”
    • Line 57: “unafraid.”
    • Line 58: “free it.”
    • Line 60: “see it.”
    • Line 61: “be it.”

  • Parallelism

    

    

    

    

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    Where parallelism appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-4: “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,”
    • Lines 7-8: “Somehow we do it. / Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken,”
    • Line 11: “far from polished, far from pristine,”
    • Lines 12-13: “but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. / We are striving to forge our union with purpose.”
    • Lines 15-18: “And 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.”
    • Lines 20-24: “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. / Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.”
    • Lines 28-29: “It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit. / It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.”
    • Line 35: “In this truth, in this faith”
    • Lines 38-39: “We feared it at its inception. / We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour,”
    • Line 43: “bruised but whole, benevolent but bold”
    • Line 45: “Our blunders become their burdens.”
    • Lines 50-54: “We will rise from the golden hills of the west. / We will rise from the wind-swept north-east 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.”
    • Line 55: “In every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country,”
    • Line 56: “diverse and beautiful,” “battered and beautiful”
    • Lines 60-61: “if only we’re brave enough to see it. / If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

  • Antithesis

    

    

    

    

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    Where antithesis appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-9: “a nation that isn’t broken, / but simply unfinished.”
    • Lines 12-13: “but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. / We are striving to forge our union with purpose.”
    • Line 15: “not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”
    • Line 16: “to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.”
    • Lines 20-22: “That even as we grieved, we grew. / That even as we hurt, we hoped. / That even as we tired, we tried.”
    • Line 24: “Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.”
    • Lines 33-34: “But while democracy can be periodically delayed, / it can never be permanently defeated.”
    • Line 36: “for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.”
    • Line 42: “We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be:”

  • Pun

    

    

    

    

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    Where pun appears in the poem:

    • Line 5: “the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “where can we find light in this never-ending shade”
    • Line 2: “The loss we carry, a sea we must wade”
    • Line 3: “We’ve braved the belly of the beast”
    • Line 6: “the dawn is ours before we knew it”
    • Line 15: “we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us”
    • Line 26: “victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made”
    • Line 27: “That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare”
    • Line 29: “the past we step into”
    • Line 36: “history has its eyes on us”
    • Line 42: “We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be”
    • Line 43: “A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free”
    • Line 45: “Our blunders become their burdens.”
    • Lines 57-61: “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, / if only we’re brave enough to see it. / If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

• “The Hill We Climb” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Pristine
  • Arms
  • Sow
  • Scripture
  • Periodically
  • Inception
  • Prevail
  • Benevolent
  • Inertia
  • Blunders
  • Bronze-pounded
  • Reconcile
  • (Location in poem: Line 11: “we are far from polished, far from pristine,”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Hill We Climb”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Hill We Climb” Speaker

• “The Hill We Climb” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Hill We Climb”

• More “The Hill We Climb” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Gorman's Website — Visit Gorman's own website and learn more about her life and work.

    • A Brief Biography — Read a short biography of Gorman from the Academy of American Poets.

    • Gorman in The Guardian — Read a newspaper article about Amanda Gorman's performance of this poem at Joe Biden's inauguration. The poem earned rapturous praise not just in the U.S., but all around the world.

    • Gorman Performs the Poem — Watch Gorman's powerful performance of the poem at Joe Biden's inauguration.

    • An Interview with Gorman — Read an interview Gorman gave to National Public Radio about this poem.

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