Poet Amanda Gorman delivers inspirational inauguration performance

The poem’s very title, The Hill We Climb, suggested both labour and transcendence

American poet Amanda Gorman reads a poem during the 59th presidential inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington (Patrick Semansky/AP/Pool)

Poet Amanda Gorman referenced everything from biblical scripture to Hamilton in one of the most talked about moments of Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony.

The 22-year-old summoned images dire and triumphant, and at times echoed the oratory of John F Kennedy and the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, as she called out to the world “even as we grieved, we grew”.