Inauguration Day

This poem was performed in Washington D.C. for President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Though it is performed in this physical location, the “we” used throughout represents all Americans in the wake of pandemic, protest, and the recent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The speaker imagines a universal setting, referring to “every known nook of our nation and / every corner called our country” (102-103). Simultaneously, the setting depends on temporal as well as physical space. The poem is grounded in its present moment, a time when a sizable amount of the country rejected the incoming presidential administration.

A Future America

Throughout the poem, Gorman imagines a future for America that is brighter than its present. Acknowledging the painful history of the country's past, as well as the social division of the recent present, the poem itself strives to paint a portrait of a more...