Amanda Gorman appeared at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. The 26-year-old took the stage during the convention’s third night to debut a new poem, “This Sacred Scene,” an ode to democracy and the values of freedom.
“Divided we cannot endure, but united we can endeavor to humanize our democracy and endear democracy to humanity,” the nation’s youngest inaugural poet recited. “It falls to us, to ensure that we do not fall. For a people that cannot stand together, cannot stand at all.”
The poem followed the evening theme of “fight for our freedoms.” Gorman shared insight about her writing process ahead of the event, telling Vanity Fair, “I was trying to sit a while with what the Democratic Convention means, and more specifically, more importantly, what it means for people to gather together around shared values and principles. I think there’s something hallowed about that. I think there’s something special and also old about that that digs to the roots of who we are as human beings. I wanted to speak to that importance of unity which, for me, transcends party.”
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Gorman garnered national attention after she read one of her works, “The Hill We Climb,” during President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. The same year, she became the first person to write and perform a poem at the Super Bowl.
Gorman was appointed the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. She also founded One Pen One Page, which promotes literacy for underserved youth.
Read the full transcript of her DNC 2024 poem below:
We gather at this hollowed place / because we believe in the American dream.
We face a race that tests if this country we cherish / shall perish from the Earth / and if our Earth shall perish from this country.
It falls to us to ensure that we do not fall, / for a people that cannot stand together / cannot stand at all.
We are one family / regardless of religion, class or color.
For what defines a patriot is not just our love of liberty / but our love of one another.
This is loud in our country’s call because while we all love freedom, / it is love that frees us all.
Empathy emancipates, / making us greater than hate or vanity, / that is the American promise.
Powerful and pure, / divided we cannot endure / but united, we can endeavor to humanize our democracy / and endear democracy to humanity.
And make no mistake, / co-hearing is the hardest task history ever wrote.
But tomorrow is not written by our odds of hardship / but by the audacity of our hope, / by the vitality of our vote.
Only now approaching this rare air / are we aware / that perhaps the American dream is no dream at all / but instead a dare / to dream together.
Like a million roots tethered, / branching up humbly, / making one tree, this is our country / from many, one, / from battles, won, / our freedoms sung, / our kingdom come has just begun.
We redeem this sacred scene / ready for our journey from it together.
We must birth this early republic / and achieve an unearthly summit / let us not just believe in an American dream, / let us be worthy of it.
