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If you don’t count the new administration or the Bernie Sanders photo now memed into oblivion, the shining star of Wednesday’s presidential inauguration was undoubtedly Amanda Gorman.

The 22-year-old from Los Angeles, who in 2017 became the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, read her poem The Hill We Climb during the ceremony and left an audience of millions in awe.

The performance earned praise far and wide, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose blockbuster musical Hamilton was referenced in The Hill We Climb. “You were perfect,” Miranda told Gorman on Twitter. “Perfectly written, perfectly delivered. Every bit of it. Brava!”

Count the folks who write and teach poetry in the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh English department among those impressed.

“What’s so crucial is Amanda Gorman didn’t just read the poem; she enacted it,” said associate English professor Stewart Cole. “She was an engaging, commanding presence, inhabiting the rhythm and music of her words in a way that carried her audience along with her. I was mesmerized. That she was able to be so transfixing under the pressure of the entire world watching—or at least a good chunk of it—is impressive and inspiring.”

Stewart Cole

Lecturer Abayomi Animashaun, who’ll have an advanced poetry course on his schedule come spring, explained part of what stood out to him about “The Hill We Climb” is it is what’s known as an occasion poem—meaning they have to speak to certain themes and are written under deadline. They’re among the most difficult to write, he said.

“My first reaction watching Amanda Gorman was, ‘This is a fine inaugural poem by a poet who knows how to read poems,'” Animashaun said. “Aside from the craft that went into the poem, I was particularly taken by how clearly each word and line was read by Gorman.”

Many viewers would learn after the inauguration that Gorman overcame a speech impediment that was an obstacle in her younger years. As if we needed more reasons to be impressed.

Abayomi Animashaun

Bill Gillard, an associate English professor on the Fox Cities campus, has published three collections of poetry and will teach two creative writing courses in the spring. What struck him was the different energy levels of the poem. It took listeners on a journey, he said, as all great pieces of literature do.

“Early on it was as if figurative language had failed her and she had the power only to make blunt statements about hope and ideals,” he said. “Then, as the poem progressed, the musicality of it emerged along with the optimism of the speaker. The alliteration and rhyme asserted themselves, as if poetry had not been possible only minutes before, but now, irrepressibly, there it was, as if it were our birthright long denied.

“The voice at the beginning of the poem is tentative, as if unaccustomed to speech after a long period of silence. The voice at the end was joyful and optimistic.”

Bill Gillard

An optimist might also think that, with such a moment, more people will explore the work of Gorman or the writing of other poets.

“People say they do not like poetry and then they spend a pile of money for Hamilton tickets,” Gillard said. “People say that they don’t understand it and then they listen to a love song and cry. I know that a lot of young people were watching the inauguration. I hope it gives them some interest and appreciation for the power of their own words.”

While poetry is often woven through Broadway shows, popular music and other art forms, it’s a rare occasion the form gets a platform with nearly 40 million television viewers and the countless social shares that followed.

“Unfortunately, poets are rarely afforded such moments in our culture,” Cole said. “In fact, here in the U.S., inaugurations have often been high points for poetry as a public artform—and even then, only four presidents have given a poet the opportunity to deliver an inaugural poem: JFK, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama twice, and now Joe Biden.

“I personally think it should be a requirement—and after Gorman’s performance, I’m guessing the American public would be OK with that. Executive order anyone?”

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