When Amanda Gorman took the stage on January 20, 2021, to read the inaugural poem, she became the youngest and only sixth person to ever do so. According to poets.org, “An inaugural poem is a poem read at a Presidential inauguration. It may also be categorized as an occasional poem.”
Only four presidents have included inaugural poems in their inauguration ceremonies, starting with President John F. Kennedy in 1961, when Robert Frost recited “The Gift Outright” from memory. He had originally composed a poem called “Dedication” for the inauguration, but the “sun’s glare upon the snow-covered ground” prevented him from reading it.
The next inaugural poem occurred 32 years later, for President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, when Maya Angelou read “On the Pulse of the Morning,” a video of which is available here. Four years later, Miller Williams read “Of History and Hope” for President Clinton’s 1997 inauguration (video available here).
President Barack Obama also had poems read at both of his inaugurations. In 2009, Elizabeth Alexander read “Praise Song for the Day” (video available here), and in 2013, Richard Blanco read “One Today” (video available here).
Most recently, earlier this week at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Amanda Gorman read her original poem, “The Hill We Climb” (video available here). Ms. Gorman was also the inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate in April 2017, at the age of 19.