Lincloln and Pericles

Over the weekend students in the English III class were to read Abraham Lincoln's The Gettysburg Address.  While hopefully being familiar with this document from History class, we will be analyzing it rhetorically.  Obviously it is historically significant, but we also recognize it as Lincoln's greatest speech.  In looking at his oration we should note the tone of the speaker as well as the cadence of the words and phrasings.  In addition, the power of the wording should be recognized, and students should look for particularly strong imagery, juxtapositions, repetitions, antitheses, and parallelisms.


While in class please read Pericles's funeral oration, recounted in The Pelopnnesian War by Thucydides (Good luck pronouncing that name).  That speech was given  more than 2,000 years before Lincoln's.  Questions you will answer in class include:

How does the tone of the speakers compare?

How does the language contribute to the sense of authority?

How are the shifts in tone and subject executed?*

In addition you may choose to look at Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address for further comparison.


*Ideas for discussion and questions for comparison taken from Teaching Non-Fiction in AP English by Renee H. Shea and Lawrence Scanlon