I have a dream…

Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech is considered one of the finest examples of anaphora (əˈnaf(ə)rə). Anaphora is focused on a repeated word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. In this case, King uses the phrase "I have a Dream" to ignite the audience into action. Anaphora enhances the strength of the message. It has a rhythm. King's background in the Baptist Church contributes to this necessary rhythm. He grew up listening to his father and many other Black ministers preach. This formed his dynamic delivery.

The speech begins by laying out the history of Black people from slavery to the current day (1963). It points out the injustice and broken promises by the White community.

He continues by pointing out the delicate strategy to equality: "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.” He also uses the phrase, "We cannot be satisfied…" in a pentacolon (ˈpen(t)əˈkōlən, five parallel clauses) together with anaphora.

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their adulthood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: For Whites Only.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

He sets up the phrase, "I have a dream." to commence the conclusion of the speech and to lay out his ultimate goals. A tetracolon (te‧trəˈkōlən, four parallel clauses), again, with anaphora:

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.

Laying out his vision of a just and fair America for all, only to conclude in another anaphoric nonocolon;

Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.


Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.


Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.


Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.


Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that:


Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.


Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.


Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.


From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

This begs the question: who in today's global politics would write a speech of such breadth and vision in light of petty partisanship, perpetual conflict, and misery?