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Amanda Gorman

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Back to the Past

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By Author Name

About Gorman

The name of our poet is Amanda Gorman. Amanda Gorman is a young poet with outstanding prowess and presence. She was born in 1998 and was raised in Los Angeles, California. She is a 24 year old Black Catholic American and astonishing poet. Gorman started writing when she was 5 years old and would beg her mother for paper to write on. At the age of 17, she had written her first book in 2015. In 2021, she was chosen by President Joe Biden to read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration. Poems that this poet wrote are Ships Manifest, Back to the Past, Call Us, and Aboracent 1. All of these poems have a common theme of Gorman’s poems are the consistency of humane topics and emotions. She speaks of human connection and relationships by using literary devices such as metaphors and similes. The poem chosen was Back to the Past.

The name of our poet is Amanda Gorman. Amanda Gorman is a young poet with outstanding prowess and presence. She was born in 1998 and was raised in Los Angeles, California. She is a 24 year old Black Catholic American and astonishing poet. Gorman started writing when she was 5 years old and would beg her mother for paper to write on. At the age of 17, she had written her first book in 2015. In 2021, she was chosen by President Joe Biden to read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration. Poems that this poet wrote are Ships Manifest, Back to the Past, Call Us, and Aboracent 1. All of these poems have a common theme of Gorman’s poems are the consistency of humane topics and emotions. She speaks of human connection and relationships by using literary devices such as metaphors and similes. The poem chosen was Back to the Past.

At times even blessings will bleed us.
There are some who lost their lives
& those who were lost from ours,
Who we might now reënter,
All our someones summoned softly.
The closest we get to time travel
Is our fears softening,
Our hurts unclenching,
As we become more akin
To kin, as we return
To who we were
Before we actually were
Anything or anyone—
That is, when we were born unhating
& unhindered, howling wetly
With everything we could yet become.
To travel back in time is to remember
When all we knew of ourselves was love.

At times even blessings will bleed us.
There are some who lost their lives
& those who were lost from ours,
Who we might now reënter,
All our someones summoned softly.
The closest we get to time travel
Is our fears softening,
Our hurts unclenching,
As we become more akin
To kin, as we return
To who we were
Before we actually were
Anything or anyone—
That is, when we were born unhating
& unhindered, howling wetly
With everything we could yet become.
To travel back in time is to remember
When all we knew of ourselves was love.

In Amanda Gorman’s poem, “Back to the Past”, Gorman conveys the central idea that everyone can move forward and be whoever they wish to be despite what they have been through. Gorman had used the literary device alliteration when she said “When were born unhating, & unhindered, howling wetly with everything we could yet become.” When we were young, we were children who did not feel hatred towards other, but only pureness and admiration for the world around us. As we grow up, things will happen to dulled our eyes and change our perspective of the world. Despite our dulled eyes, we can always open them back up and view the world in a different and better way. Another way Gorman conveyed the central idea by using literary devices by using personification when she said “Is our fears softening, our hurts unclenching.” We get these feelings after negative things happen throughout our lives and they are only natural. She humanizes these feelings and instances instead of pretending they do not exist or that they are negative to have. Overall, Amanda Gorman coveys the central idea that everyone can move forward and be whoever they wish to be despite what they have been through by using the literary devices alliteration and personification.