America’s youngest inaugural poet Amanda Gorman has US enthralled

Reading the inaugural poem, Amanda Gorman mesmerised a global audience and laid claim to a new literary stature.

Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman speaks at the inauguration. Picture: Getty Images.

When Amanda Gorman stepped up to the inauguration ceremony podium she was little known and barely tall enough to see over the microphones.

By the time she bowed her head six minutes later the youngest inaugural poet, by far, had mesmerised a global audience of millions and laid claim to a literary stature that she could never have anticipated even a few weeks ago.

Late last month the inaugural committee got in touch with Ms Gorman, 22, to say that Jill Biden had seen her give a reading at the Library of Congress. The soon-to-be first lady wondered if the former National Youth Poet Laureate might compose a work and perform it at the inauguration.

That poem, The Hill We Climb, had its first public airing immediately after President Biden’s inaugural address.

Former national youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman arrives at the inauguration. Picture: AFP.

Wrapped in a yellow coat and with her braided hair pulled under a bright red band, Ms Gorman stood in front of the Capitol, smiled and with calm deliberation greeted “Mr President, Dr Biden, Madam Vice-President, Mr Emhoff, Americans and the world”.

Then she began to recite lines full of pain and hope that she had completed in a late-night writing session on January 6, the day that Trump supporters stormed the building behind her.

Her voice had a propulsive intent and her words were brought further to life by her fluttering hands that swooped and jabbed as she delivered her lines. The poem opened with an image of despair: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” However, swiftly Ms Gorman reached for a more uplifting mood: “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.”

Laced within lay wry humour. Americans are “the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl [she pointed at herself], descended from slaves and raised by a single mother, can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one”.

Ms Gorman was brought up in Los Angeles, and attended a private school in affluent Santa Monica but her mother is a teacher in struggling Watts. The stark contrast between the two neighbourhoods left an indelible impression on her. She was a bookish child who fell in love with poetry at a young age and would write in journals in the playground at school. Like Mr Biden, she grew up with a speech impediment, but she did not stumble yesterday (Wednesday).

At 16 she was named Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. She became the first National Youth Poet Laureate a few years later while studying sociology at Harvard University. Ms Gorman’s first volume of collected poems, also called The Hill We Climb and aimed at teenagers and young adults, will be published in September as will a picture book, Change Sings, aimed at children.

The Times