How Amanda Gorman overcame speech impediment with help of a 'Hamilton' song

America's first young poet laureate Amanda Gorman grabbed headlines with her poetry at the President Joe Biden's swearing-in ceremony. 

Gorman's powerful poem 'The Hill We Climb' moved one and all as it celebrated the historic moment on Wednesday. Gorman revealed later to CNN after her performance that she dealt with a speech impediment until last two or three years. During the interview, she recalled that she overcame the condition with the help of Tony-winning song `Aaron Burr, Sir` from Broadway play 'Hamilton.'

"It was as recent as college that I was still struggling to say the `R` sound, and so one thing that I would do to try to train myself to say it, is I would listen to the song `Aaron Burr, Sir,` which is just packed with R`s," Groman said."And I would try to keep up with Leslie Odom Jr as he`s doing this amazing rap, and I`d say, `If I can train myself to do this song, then I can train myself to say this letter`," she added. 

The poet went on to explain the reason that her inaugural poem contained references to Lin-Manuel Miranda`s theatrical production. "And so that`s been a huge part of my own speech pathology. It`s why I included it in the inaugural poem. Also, beyond that, I think Hamilton is just such a great American cultural piece of what it means to be a better country," she said. 

Amanda Gorman becomes youngest inaugural poet in US history

"It was really hard for me not to just copy and paste `My Shot` and email it to the committee. Like, `Here`s my poem, here we go!` But I cite my sources, which is why I tweeted about Hamilton. I`m really proud to incorporate that in there," she added. 

The youngest inaugural poet took to Twitter soon after delivering her work at the ceremony and asked Lin-Manuel if he could catch the references she made to his musical. "Did you catch the 2 @HamiltonMusical references in the inaugural poem? I couldn`t help myself," she had tweeted.