So I've gone through the inaugural address a couple more times since Tuesday and have been parsing it with my relatively nonexistent free time, although I seem to have more free time to do this than the journalists who were supposed to have done so...issuing generalizations about its content with no examples and then sticking in some lines about the speech's pragmatism but its lack of real inspiration seems to be the norm. Figured I would post my thoughts.
A few things struck me that make me think this speech will last for a while (although that'll ultimately be decided by the presidency itself). It was a little more subtle in its use of oratory than some of the lines from great speeches in the past. Using the two most prominent examples, both FDR and JFK's famous lines used rhetorical devices easily understood by even an untrained ear; "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," obviously, uses the same word as both verb and object, while "ask not..." uses a chiasm to switch up the order of the wording while keeping the same (most important) word in each phrase.
Meanwhile, I think some of Obama's important lines used some more subtle but more poetic rhetorical devices that contrasted nicely with the speech's realism in terms of the struggles we face. First, the line I liked most from the whole speech (based on delivery and writing):
"Our/spirit is/stronger and/cannot be/broken; you/cannot out/last us, and/we will de/feat you." (1:12 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/... ) You'll see I broke up the line into sets of three syllables, and in each set of three (referred to as a meter in poetry), the first syllable is in bold to indicate that it is stressed when naturally read aloud (try reading it yourself). Obama, somewhat in the style of a preacher, puts some emphasis on that last "will," but this sentence was deliberately written in dactyllic form (meaning it has meters of three beats with the emphasis on the first). This is a dead giveaway that what he is reciting is really poetry, and a sentence like that is nearly impossible to write (even poets often can't get a full line of it when they try). But he deliberately did it so that one of the more important lines in his speech coincided with beautiful-sounding rhythm, making it naturally appeal to people regardless of whether they recognize its form. Finally, check out what we could call the "leftover" meters, namely, the first syllable and last two syllables. Those three syllables, only one of which is stressed, form another dactyllic meter when put together. This further emphasizes that this structure was intentional, and is seen not only in poetry but also in music; if there are four beats to a bar, for example, and the first bar of a song only has one beat, then the last bar must have three beats to round things out. Pretty remarkable when really considered closely. I think this may be the enduring line from the speech; although we're in the midst of economic turmoil, perhaps what characterizes the politics of this generation most is actually the global fight against terrorism. (In fact, when he first defines the crisis we face, he first mentions terrorism rather than the economy: "Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.") If Obama manages to win some victories in this battle, I think this line becomes the most important one of his speech.
He also uses poetic verse in some other very important lines:
-- "We re/ject as/false the/choice be/tween our/safety/and our/ideals." (2:50 here: http://www.youtube.com/... ) This is trochaic verse, in which the meters each have two syllables and the first is stressed (although the last meter switches things up -- I told you it's hard to get a full line out). You'll recognize it as the opposite of Shakespeare, who uses almost all iambic meter. Big moment in the speech, too.
-- "Let us/brave once/more the/icy/currents,/and en/dure what/storms may/come." (2:55 here: http://www.youtube.com/... ) Also trochaic, and part of his final flourish.
-- "We did/not turn/back nor/did we/falter." Trochaic again, last sentence of speech. (See link directly above...only a few seconds after.)
This is admittedly relatively selective picking of pieces of the speech that support my hypothesis, but the fact that such parts exist and appear in such important places in the speech shows how great a speech it was rhetorically.
Some other subtleties not immediately apparent were the clear references to the past, and in one case, the Bible. With some help from Robert Schlesinger, some of them are as follows:
-- "So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans." The phrase "this generation of Americans" comes from JFK's inaugural: "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans."
-- "The time has come to set aside childish things." 1 Corinthians 13:11 reads, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
-- "The time has come...to choose our better history." Reminiscent of Lincoln's call to the "better angels of our nature" in his first inaugural.
-- "For us, they...endured the lash of the whip." "Lash" was again a term used by Lincoln (in referring to slaves), this time in his 2nd inaugural.
The last thing I noticed that was not immediately apparent about the speech was his refusal to refer to himself in the first person. By my count, he only said "I" three times, the last time being only 2:30 into the 19-minute speech when he stated, "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real." He clearly tried to illustrate that this moment was bigger than just himself, and so even when he referred to the historicity of the moment regarding race, he skirted making himself the subject of the speech.
There were plenty of overt devices, too, of the sort I highlighted in the FDR and JFK speeches. To name a couple:
-- The repeated "For us" at the beginning of three consecutive sentences is one of many uses of anaphora, a common rhetorical practice in which the first word or phrase of a sentence is repeated for emphasis. Also appears in his address to those around the world, in which every sentence starts with "To."
-- "The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous." Same type of device as FDR.
-- Use of imagery throughout the speech, especially in the introduction ("gathering clouds and raging storms") and conclusion ("let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come"). Obvious rhetorical devices.
What also held his speech together was his delivery and the surrounding scene. Had a less accomplished speaker (e.g. Bush) used such well-worn imagery, it could have been described as stale and platitudinous. Instead, his eloquent delivery continually rose to the occasion, allowing for the sorts of rhetorical reaches he made; he paced himself well and in some intangible way, sounded more important than he ever has before. And the scene was pretty unbelievable...two million people together on the Mall waving American flags in front of the Capitol made for a scene that gave credence to his rhetoric. Somewhat random, but the imagery reminded me somehow of Star Wars; I guess it was just that grandiose.
In terms of the content of the speech, a few things struck me. First, he was speaking to the whole world and not just America in reasserting that America is ready to lead. I really liked this ambitiousness and spoke to the grandness of his vision for the country. Second, he framed the perils we face in terms that I had never thought of before and made me really consider how important this time is in our history. By implying that the situation we face is analogous to the one faced by the soldiers of the American Revolution, it made me think that we really do need someone to actually deliver our country from the worst of all possibilities in the near future. And lastly, he instilled a sense of confidence in me that we can and must confront this crisis. "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America," he stated. This created a powerful image in my mind (once again random) of America as a Depression-era manual laborer down in the dirt, and we need to "pick ourselves up" and start the forward march again. Fitting, given that once the stimulus bill passes, many hard-working Americans will start the process of literally rebuilding America with their bare hands.
Obama's speech doesn't immediately strike you with a sound bite that rises above the rest of the speech. As explained above, I think there are some great lines in the speech that will be remembered, but what I actually this shows is that his speaking style illustrates his nuanced view of the world. This admission of nuance is both refreshing and needed at this complicated time, and he appropriately uses complex sentences to express complex ideas.
Like I said, in the end Obama (and the circumstances) will decide whether his speech lives on in history by the actions he takes in office. But I think it really deserves more than the treatment it has been receiving in the press (which has been fine, but not really adulatory). I think it's either my favorite or second favorite of his speeches...can't decide between it and this year's DNC speech.
Anyway, I think that's all, and I'd be interested to hear all your thoughts. Sorry to write such an essay, but I figured I'd better get down all my thoughts while I remembered them and that you guys would appreciate hearing them more than a blank piece of paper would.