Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate, shot into the spotlight instantly after she recited her powerful poem “The Hill We Climb” for Joe Biden’s inauguration. Her words, her Prada headband and her “Hamilton” references all drew chatter online; she tweeted that she is a big fan of the musical about the nation’s founding.
The “Hamilton” reference, however, is itself a reference, which quotes a prophetic promise repeated in Micah 4:4, Zechariah 3:10 and 1 Kings 5:5. “Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid,” Gorman said on the inaugural stage. The same biblical line about figs and vines is also featured in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical because George Washington cited it in his famous letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island.