The Hill We Climb

“The Hill We Climb” is an extended allegory about the journey America is on, focusing on the movement from the country’s dark recent past to a bright future. The main element of the allegory is the hill. The allegory alludes to the historical use of the image of America as a city on a hill by former politicians; in Gorman’s version, the hill represents America’s climb to become that shining city.

Gorman utilizes a number of other allusions with long historical uses in the poem. When she describes the right of all Americans to “sit under their own vine and fig tree / and no one shall make them afraid” (Lines 44-45), Gorman is pointing a long and layered set of references. The line, which means that under God’s protection, all men can live freely without fear, comes from the Book of Micah in the Old Testament of the Bible. It was a favorite biblical quotation for George Washington, America’s first president, who used it frequently in his writings. Recently, the quotation made it into the musical Hamilton, in which a retiring President Washington invokes this image to explain his decision not to run for office again.