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I'm happy to John with you today
in what will go down in history as the
greatest demonstration for freedom in
the history of our nation Martin Luther
King's I have a dream speech is arguably
the most important and most well known
speech of the 20th century it's 1667
words and 17 minutes long absolutely
riddled with big difficult terms and
full of rhetorical devices that are
intentional and practiced the speech as
everyone knows was delivered at the
march on Washington in 1963 and voiced
the economic political and moral message
of civil rights to a quarter million
people in front of the Lincoln Memorial
onto those people and the billions who
have seen or heard it since Kings words
imprinted an image of what black
Americans were fighting for and why
fully 100 years after Abraham Lincoln
freed the slaves with the Emancipation
Proclamation five score years the gold a
great American in whose symbolic shadow
we stand today signed the Emancipation
Proclamation the very first line of the
speech is already doing so much the
first four words are an allusion to
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address an
instantly recognizable piece of American
rhetoric that in one fell swoop links
America's Founding which Lincoln spoke
of and the Civil War when he spoke with
the fight for civil rights throughout
the speech King takes great pains to
make links like this it's important for
him to frame civil rights as a chapter
in the larger American mythology so that
those who identify with that mythology
might incorporate this struggle into
that story beyond alienable rights of
life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness but there's even more to see
in this first line one of the things
that makes King's words so memorable is
their musicality here he uses
alliteration five words starting with
the letter F that draw you along the
sentence like a tune that's catchy
alliteration helps the phrase stick in
the mind and King returns to it again
and again in the sea
dark and desolate ballet is sweltering
summer of the Negro's legitimate
discontent the marvelous new militants
are the great trials and tribulation 'ti
and discipline in a sense we've come to
our nation's capital to cash a check
this isn't the only rhythmically aware
or musical feature of I have a dream
there's another rhetorical device called
anaphora
which King uses even more than
alliteration an opera is the repetition
of a word or phrase at the beginning of
successive sentences something that in
writing would be redundant but in speech
is an effective tool for emphasis and I
have a dream Martin Luther King uses an
afro as an emphasizing tool but also as
an organizing device listen to how these
phrases sketch the larger ideas of the
speech almost like an outline but 100
years 100 years 100 years 100 years like
but we refuse to believe we refuse to
believe now is the time how is the power
is the power is the power we can never
be satisfied and never be setted we
cannot be satisfied we can never be
satisfied I have a dream I have a dream
I have a dream I have a dream I have a
dream to be let freedom ring let freedom
ring let freedom ring freedom ring let
freedom ring the speech goes from the
past to the present to the future of
civil rights and is threaded with a
refusal to settle for anything other
than the ideal of freedom and equality I
think this is a key to Martin Luther
King's rhetorical genius drawing from
his gospel roots he not only uses
alliteration and anaphora even allusion
for dramatic effect but also to help the
audience grasp the structure and
remember the nuance of his message King
knows that for example you may not know
this line from Shakespeare now is the
winter of our discontent made glorious
summer by this son of York but the
phrase will ring familiar it's
sweltering summer of the Negro's
legitimate discontent will not pass
until that is an invigorating autumn of
freedom and equality King shifts the
seasons of course because for those who
live in the American South autumn is
more relieving than summer
know your audience and sticking with
this paragraph for just a moment notice
that this sentence of Shakespearean
poetry is couched in a point about
urgency and not settling a king isn't
all flowery language he draws that image
of paradise then follows it with a
sentence that contains three
easy-to-understand
cliches so to hope that the Negro needed
to blow off steam and will now be
content will have a rude awakening if
the nation returns to business as usual
this mixing of plain and ornate language
is I think a microcosm of what occurs in
the entire speech after alluding to the
Gettysburg Address in the Declaration of
Independence King compares the promises
of those documents to a bad check check
which has come back marked insufficient
funds after invoking the plain realities
of police brutality for whites only
signs and voter suppression he
paraphrases the Bible we will not be
satisfied until justice rolls down like
waters and righteousness like a mighty
stream
the first half of the speech describes
in large part the issue at hand what is
to be done and demanded what is to be
avoided and he tells those who have
suffered to hold fast and believe while
the final part which was famously
improvised by King on the spot rises
into the heights of dreams and ideas I
have a dream that one day every Valley
shall be exalted every Hill and mountain
shall be made low the rough places will
be made plain and the crooked places
will be made straight and the parabola
shall be revealed and all flesh shall
fear together in my video analyzing
Donald Trump's speech I talked about how
he was able to connect with people by
using simple language it's a good
general rule for public speaking when
you're addressing a large diverse
audience the most important part of
rhetoric is being understood Trump does
this by keeping his words basic and
emotional and it works but I think
Martin Luther King offers a counter
example of public speaking one that
more complex and layered in language and
structure but still just as easily
understandable as anything that current
politicians or speakers say and I have a
dream the simple language contextualizes
and grounds the poetic and the poetic
elevates and animates the simple that's
why it echoes across time and will echo
for decades and ages to come something
vital and alive we will be able to speed
up that day when all of God's children
black men and white men Jews and
Gentiles Protestants and Catholics will
be able to join hands and sing in the
words of the old Negro spiritual free at
last free at last hey everybody thanks
for watching and thank you to the great
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thank you guys so much for watching I
will see all of you not next Wednesday
but I'll be in Boston for nerdcon nerd
bacteria
put the link in description below if
you're in Boston come say hi
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