I have a dream
Alliteration
The repetition of sounds makes the speech more catchy and memorable.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check.
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no…
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Allusion
By using a classic American President’s speech and a famous African-American spiritual as bookends to the speech, he is demonstrating the equivalent worth of both cultures.
The speech begins with “Five score years ago…”, a reference to the Gettysburg Address and ends with the “words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
Anaphora
This term describes the most famous part of the speech: King’s repetition of “I have a dream.”
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years
The repetition of sounds makes the speech more catchy and memorable.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check.
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no…
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Allusion
By using a classic American President’s speech and a famous African-American spiritual as bookends to the speech, he is demonstrating the equivalent worth of both cultures.
The speech begins with “Five score years ago…”, a reference to the Gettysburg Address and ends with the “words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
Anaphora
This term describes the most famous part of the speech: King’s repetition of “I have a dream.”
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years