The speaker of the poem is technically the poet, Elizabeth Alexander, as she was the person to deliver the poem at Barack Obama's inauguration. However, Alexander embodies the voice of a collective "we" throughout the poem, as is common in inauguration poetry readings. This plural first-person perspective represents the American people as the poet gives voice to a collective national consciousness. The first line of the poem is, "Each day we go about our business," establishing this collective voice (1). As such, the poem unites its listeners through the figure of the speaker before they even hear the rest of poem. Thus, the speaker embodies the hope for unity and patriotism that the poem goes on to enact through its descriptions of various Americans' daily lives.