Figurative Language in Speeches

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.”

• allusion

• simile

• personification

• hyperbole

...even the state of Mississippi, a State Sweltering with the heat of injustice…

• simile

• alliteration

• metaphor

• parallelsim

I have a dream.......I have a dream.......I have a dream.........

• simile

• metaphor

• repetition

• allusion

This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope

• simile

• repetition

• alliteration

• rhyme

 to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together,

• simile

• alliteration

• parallelism

• metaphor

this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning: “My country, ‘tis of thee sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride (Yeah), from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

• simile

• allusion

• personification

• rhyme

The end of slavery was a joyous daybreak

• simile

• metaphor

• repetition

• parallelism