“And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So 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 snowcapped 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.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all 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! Thank God Almighty! We are free at last!”
Throughout his speech, King made use of repetition as evidence by the phrase “Let freedom ring!” Anaphora is obviously King’s favorite device in the delivery of his speech, a style he used even in his Church sermons.
Also pictured in these last lines are creative images of different states. King continuously appeals to different people from various locations and different backgrounds. He unites religious beliefs with patriotism that everything is to be done according to the will of God.
King closed his speech with the words “free at last”, believing in salvation. This is their destiny— to be free. It is with these words that Dr. King was able to stress and put an everlasting mark on the hearts of his followers how freedom should be. The effect of this speech has crawled into the hearts and minds of people making them follow a somewhat invisible line to reach the goal that King had.
“I Have a Dream” is truly one of the best rhetorical speeches of all time. A piece that truly shows the passion and belief of a person and how this passion has moved people across generations and generations to come. It is surely a lasting legacy left by Dr. Martin Luther King for all mankind.
