The Hill We Climb

“The Hill We Climb” is very much a poem of political hope. Echoing President Biden’s campaign promises to bring the country back together after the divisions sewn by the presidency of Donald Trump, Gorman focuses on a unifying message and playing on established American tropes of freedom, hope, and the future. Gorman also uses the poem and the occasion of its reading (the election) to fight against what she perceives as destructive forces in America. Gorman does not shy away from activism in the poem, and she is clear in establishing which side of the political spectrum she supports (progressive multiculturalism) and which side she is against (conservative rightwing extremism). By writing the poem primarily in the first person plural, she groups all listeners and readers into an active, supportive political body that rejects the destructive influence of Trump’s tenure.

Gorman establishes herself as a progressive activist early in the poem with a pun on the word justice:

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,

and the norms and notions

of what just is

isn’t always justice (Lines 6-9).

This line echoes Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963).