Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech analyzed by Nancy Duarte from Duarte on Vimeo.

I am already cheating with this blog. Rather than an essay, go look at a speech by Martin Luther King. It is only justified because the above video about King’s I have a dream speech explains rhythm and thematic parallelism so very well.

When it comes to language, every one of us is just a rhythm junkie. We will say we like a sentence like “These are the times that try men’s souls…” and note with wonder that it seems better than “These are difficult times for people…” without considering the scansion:

These are the days that try men’s souls…*

x          /     x    /       x       /     x        /

At the larger level we hear “one day” repeated across paragraphs and…