In the first stanza, Amanda Gorman acknowledges the difficulties that America is currently facing, difficulties such as ideological conflict, racism, and violence. She says that these difficulties can sometimes seem like a "never-ending shade" or like "the belly of the beast." However, Gorman then reminds her audience that America is a country that perseveres and battles through adversity. She says that the country "isn't broken but simply unfinished." This optimistic, defiant tone runs throughout the whole poem.
In the second stanza, Gorman emphasizes the equality and unity that she wants America to strive for. She envisions a "country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions," and she invites the American people to renounce violence and "lay down (their) arms" (meaning their guns) and "reach out (their) arms to one another." At the end of the stanza, Gorman celebrates the resilience of the American people, who, "even as (they) grieved...
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… grew," and who, "even as (they) hurt … hoped."
In the third stanza, Gorman reminds her audience of the importance of democracy. She says that although democracy can be "periodically delayed," it can "never be permanently defeated." Gorman identifies this "truth" and this "faith" in democracy as an integral, irreducible aspect of America's character. At the end of the stanza, as at the end of the previous stanza, Gorman reiterates the fortitude and resilience of the American people. She asks, rhetorically, "How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?" The implied answer of course is that the American people are too strong to allow catastrophe to prevail.
In the fourth stanza of the poem, Gorman looks forward once more to the progress and growth of America. She insists that America will "not march back to what was, but move to what shall be." She also states that the progress that America needs will be spurred on by love. Love, Gorman proclaims, will be America's "legacy and change, our children's birthright."
In the fifth and final stanza of the poem, Gorman calls upon all parts of America to pull together as one united whole. She calls upon "the golden hills of the west," the "wind-swept north-east," the "lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states," and the "sunbaked south." It is significant that Gorman ends the poem with a reminder of the importance of unity, which in itself points to the deep-rooted divisions in America at this time.