So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left. If we merged mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy, and change our children’s birthright. Our blunders become their burdens, but one thing is certain. 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. We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised.īut whole benevolence, but bold, fierce, and free. Now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? 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. In this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.Īnd this effort very nearly succeeded, but while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated in this truth. We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it. It’s the past we step into and how we repair it. If only we dare it’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit. That is the promise to glade the hill we climb. 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. Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division. That we’ll forever be tied together victorious. Let the globe, if nothing else say, this is true. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. To compose a country, committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.Īnd so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us We are striving to forge our union with purpose. We, the successors of a country and the 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.Īnd yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that it isn’t broken, but simply unfinished. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.Īnd the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice.Īnd yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The hill we climb amanda gorman