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Peter Fenzel and Matthew Wrather continue their close reading of Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb,” finding that it rewards sustained attention and repeated reading.
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Further Reading
- “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Ralegh
- Sonnet 30, William Shakespeare
- From George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, 18 August 1790
- Psalm 85 (KJV)
- The Statue of Liberty
Given its context preceding the references to the Trump administration and how many younger people see it as a turning point, I suspect that the “everyone shall sit under their own vine” line may be even more specific than merely Hamilton, one specific performance of the song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV4UpCq2azs – 2:15 is the line, but you can see Christopher Jackson kinda-sorta dressed as Obama as he plays Washington.
Obviously, other people have pointed out the reference of the ends to both “Still I Rise” (which Pete mentioned) and “I Have a Dream,” but it’s probably worth noting ending with two of what might be the best-known and most-sanitized Black speakers. I can’t help read it as “oh, you want to pretend that King was just dreaming about kids playing together? OK, then let’s play.”
Oh, I haven’t used it, but Disney+ calls their multi-user feature “GroupWatch.” It’s the sometimes-unlabeled button that looks like a Reply All button. I’m guessing that it doesn’t work if participants aren’t Disney+ subscribers, which I suppose isn’t terrible, except for the few hard-liners who won’t support a monopolistic company. Weirdly, it looks like Hamilton was supposed to have gotten a DVD release, but it doesn’t seem to have happened.
This article might be of interest, here. https://theconversation.com/amanda-gormans-poetry-shows-why-spoken-word-belongs-in-school-153838