I Have A Dream Speech

Dr. King’s speech is in the style of a sermon which, like many sermons, connects the past and present to tell a moral story. While King makes repeated reference to spiritual elements and “God’s children,” the speech’s rhythm, pacing, and cadence (especially the way King delivered it, which the transcript of the speech cannot capture) are all lifted from the Baptist sermons King watched his father deliver and he, too, delivered as a reverend. Like other sermons, King’s speech uses inclusive pronouns (“we” and “our”) to connect the audience and the speaker; it also employs repetition of key words and phrases and, especially, call and response. The audience’s responses are not included in the transcript of the text, but the repetition is. King provides lists of injustices in identical syntax and repeats this tactic again later when listing locations to celebrate. He also uses full phrases—not just singular words—in repetition. For example, he uses the phrase “I have a dream” at the start of eight separate sentences. This repetition comes straight from the church tradition.