I+Have+a+Dream+Rhetorical+Devices

[[image:I_have_a_dream.JPG width="800" height="2511"]]"I Have a Dream" Rhetorical Devices
Carroll, Lindsey, Sarah C, Courtney: “Five score years ago” – elevation “came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity” – antithesis “one hundred years later” – repeated 4 times (anaphora) Extended metaphor with cashing checks, promissory notes, and funds “now” – repeated 4 times (anaphora) “tranquilizing drug of gradualism” – metaphor “rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice” – antithesis “from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood” – antithesis “sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent” and “invigorating autumn of freedom and equality” – metaphors “bright day of justice” – metaphor “satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred” – metaphor “We can never be satisfied”/”We cannot be satisfied” – repeated 4 times (anaphora) “rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” – simile “some of you have come” – repeated 3 times (triad?) “go back” – repeated 5 times “I have a dream” – repeated 8 times (anaphora) “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal” – allusion to nation’s creed “a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice” – antithesis “mountain of despair” and “stone of hope” – metaphors “jangling discords of our nation” and “beautiful symphony of brotherhood” – metaphors “work together, pray together, to struggle together” – epistrophe “My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing…” – allusion “let freedom ring” – repeated 10 times (anaphora) “Freed at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!” – allusion