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Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of the Morning”

Gorman has cited Angelou as a formative influence on her work, so it’s valuable to read any of Angelou’s work in relation to Gorman’s. However, “On the Pulse of the Morning” is particularly germane to “The Hill We Climb,” since it’s the poem Angelou read for Bill Clinton’s first presidential inauguration, in 1993. Both poems address the nation at a time of deep division and offer a fragile vision of a brighter day about to dawn.

Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”

At the rousing climax of “The Hill We Climb,” Gorman incorporates an allusion to the refrain of “Still I Rise.” As its title suggests, Angelou’s poem is built around the motif of ascent. In her case, the phrase “still I rise” serves as a Black feminist credo. That is, the speaker repeatedly asserts that despite the many challenges that hamper the advancement of Black women, she will still find a way to rise above. Gorman adopts this language of ascent and applies it to the country as a whole.

Walt Whitman, “I Hear America Singing”

Whitman wrote this poem on the eve of the American Civil War, at a time when the country’s internal division was arguably at its worst. To counter this division, Whitman offers a vision of a unified America. The speaker of this poem imagines that every American sings their own song, and the many voices all braid together into a chorus that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Aside from its clear thematic resonances with “The Hill We Climb,” it’s worth studying “I Hear America Singing” to see how Whitman’s rhetorical performance compares with Gorman’s.

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