Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb" uses alliteration throughout to underscore its points. Gorman uses this device as many as five times in a row at certain points in the poem:
We will not be turned around
Or interrupted by intimidation
Because we know our inaction...
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Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb" uses alliteration throughout to underscore its points. Gorman uses this device as many as five times in a row at certain points in the poem:
We will not be turned around
Or interrupted by intimidation
Because we know our inaction and inertia
Will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Here, Gorman uses a flood of alliteration to connect the negative "intimidation" that gets in the way of justice to the "inaction" that it causes and then to the "inheritance" that the people she is addressing will give to their children. She argues that they must be careful not to let others get in the way of their fight for justice if they want to give their children a good life.
Assonance and consonance are less common in the poem, since most of the time, Gorman uses alliteration—consonance at the beginning of a series of words—or rhyme. However, there are some examples in the poem.
Gorman uses assonance in the phrase "we found the power." The ow sound in both words connects the concepts within the line, even though they do not rhyme or alliterate.
Finally, in "a nation that isn't broken," Gorman repeatedly uses n sounds—twice in the word "nation" and again at the end of "broken." This recycling of the same consonant sound is known as consonance. Like assonance, consonance is a technique that gives poetic passages a quality of sonorous cohesion.