This passage from the endnotes sums up my biggest complaints about the collection:

I never want to see an ampersand again, especially when paired with waaay too much alliteration and gimmicky homophonic wordplay. I’m done with poetry written with the collective “we” as a shield to hide behind. It was jarring (in a good way?) to read her best poem, The Hill We Climb, at the end of the collection — it uses the word “and”!

This collection felt super rushed (I blame the publisher) and incredibly outdated/out of touch at this point. It’s my fault for finally reading it 3 years after it was published (and 4 years after it was relevant) and having no interest in 200 pages of over-generalized pandemic poems better suited to a high school poetry project, but still. Also, her style can really work for motivational settings like a commencement or an inauguration while feeling vapid and basic when written on the page. 

While Amanda Gorman might not have truly found her own voice and mastery of craft yet as a writer (ironic given her propensity for boat-based metaphors), she is clearly a supremely talented public speaker. I’d be somewhat interested in a more personal and succinct second collection from her, if she was given the time and support to properly polish it.