Poet Amanda Gorman on Wednesday became a sudden star at age 22 at President Joe Biden's inauguration as she recited verse inspired by the Capitol attack, touching on how democracy "can never be permanently defeated."

Gorman was the youngest poet to recite at an inauguration, a role first given to Robert Frost by John F. Kennedy in 1961, after First Lady Jill Biden saw one of Gorman's readings and invited her to participate at the Capitol steps.

Gorman said that she had been writing a few lines a day but stayed awake at night out of a compulsion to complete her inauguration poem, "The Hill We Climb," following the January 6 ransacking of the Capitol by supporters of then-president Donald Trump who hoped to undo Biden's victory.