The Old English Word Music of The Gettysburg Address
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches in history. Endless discussion of the concepts he presented has followed ever since. What is not widely acknowledged is how Lincoln used the inherent word music of the English language to marshal his argument.
English is a language that employs stress accent. Stressed syllables can be thrown together or spaced apart to achieve various effects. The Old English poetic meter used a four-beat line consisting of two half-lines, each employing two stressed syllables. Within and across the lines, alliteration of stressed consonants was used (all vowels alliterating with each other in stressed position) to bind together the whole and point up significant passages.
I have here broken up the text of the Address into a four-beat line. My attempt is not the only one that might be made; and of course, Lincoln himself might be thought of as taking liberties that I have smoothed over. For I am not suggesting that Lincoln knew anything about Old English poetry; rather, I am suggested that as a natural orator, and one widely read in great English prose, he had absorbed the word music of English and used it naturally.
Stressed syllables are capitalized. Alliteration is marked in BOLD.
One final note: Modern English teachers and politicians, when reciting the speech, often mangle its crashing conclusion. “The People” is a phrase to conjure by in liberal/progressive circles, so Sam Waterston, e.g., recites the conclusion for Ken Burns’s Civil War TV series, “that GOV-ern-MENT of the PEO-ple, by the PEO-ple, for the PEO-ple, SHALL not PER-ish FROM the EARTH.” By constant incantatory use of “The People,” he shifts the focus from what I think was Lincoln’s unusual and deliberate emphasis upon the prepositions, which are in obvious contrast to each other: “Of . . . By . . . For.” I hear a different drum beat at the end: Boom-de-ya-da, Boom-de-ya-da, Boom-de-ya-da BOOM! BOOM! Buh-duh-duh-duh BOOM!
FOUR SCORE and SEV-en YEARS ago
OUR FA-thers BROUGHT FORTH
on this CON-tin-ent, a NEW NA-tion,
con-CEIVED in LIB-erty, and DED-i-CAT-ed
to the PROP-o-SIT-ion that ALL MEN
are cre-ATE-d E-qual. NOW we are en-GAGED
in a great CIV-il WAR, TEST-ing WHETH-er
THAT NA-tion, or AN-y NA-tion
SO con-CEIVED and SO DED-i-cated,
can LONG en-DURE. We are MET on a GREAT
BAT-tle-FIELD of that WAR. We have COME
to DED-ic-cate a POR-tion of that FIELD, as a FIN-al
REST-ing PLACE for THOSE who here GAVE
their LIVES that THAT NA-tion might LIVE.
It is AL-to-GETH-er FIT-ting and PROP-er
that we should DO THIS. But in a LARG-er SENSE,
we can not DED-i-CATE -- we can not CON-se-CRATE,
we can not HAL-LOW - THIS GROUND.
The BRAVE MEN, LIV-ing and DEAD,
who STRUG-gled HERE, have CON-se-CRATE-d it,
far a-BOVE OUR POOR POW-er
to ADD or de-TRACT. The WORLD will little NOTE,
nor LONG re-MEM-ber what we SAY HERE,
but it can NEV-er for-GET what they DID HERE.
It is for US the LIV-ing, RATH-er, to be DED-i-cat-ed here
to the UN-FIN-ished WORK which they who FOUGHT here
have thus far so NOB-ly ad-VANCED. It is RA-ther for US
to BE here DED-i-cat-ed to the GREAT TASK
re-MAIN-ing be-FORE us - that FROM THESE
HON-ored-DEAD we take in-CREASED de-VOT-ion
to THAT CAUSE for which THEY GAVE
the LAST FULL MEA-sure of de-VOT-ion -
that WE HERE HIGH-ly re-SOLVE
that THESE DEAD SHALL NOT have
DIED in VAIN -- that this NA-tion, under GOD,
shall have a NEW BIRTH of FREE-DOM --
and that GOV-ern-MENT OF the PEO-ple,
BY the PEO-ple, FOR the PEO-ple,
SHALL NOT PER-ish from the EARTH.
English is a language that employs stress accent. Stressed syllables can be thrown together or spaced apart to achieve various effects. The Old English poetic meter used a four-beat line consisting of two half-lines, each employing two stressed syllables. Within and across the lines, alliteration of stressed consonants was used (all vowels alliterating with each other in stressed position) to bind together the whole and point up significant passages.
I have here broken up the text of the Address into a four-beat line. My attempt is not the only one that might be made; and of course, Lincoln himself might be thought of as taking liberties that I have smoothed over. For I am not suggesting that Lincoln knew anything about Old English poetry; rather, I am suggested that as a natural orator, and one widely read in great English prose, he had absorbed the word music of English and used it naturally.
Stressed syllables are capitalized. Alliteration is marked in BOLD.
One final note: Modern English teachers and politicians, when reciting the speech, often mangle its crashing conclusion. “The People” is a phrase to conjure by in liberal/progressive circles, so Sam Waterston, e.g., recites the conclusion for Ken Burns’s Civil War TV series, “that GOV-ern-MENT of the PEO-ple, by the PEO-ple, for the PEO-ple, SHALL not PER-ish FROM the EARTH.” By constant incantatory use of “The People,” he shifts the focus from what I think was Lincoln’s unusual and deliberate emphasis upon the prepositions, which are in obvious contrast to each other: “Of . . . By . . . For.” I hear a different drum beat at the end: Boom-de-ya-da, Boom-de-ya-da, Boom-de-ya-da BOOM! BOOM! Buh-duh-duh-duh BOOM!
FOUR SCORE and SEV-en YEARS ago
OUR FA-thers BROUGHT FORTH
on this CON-tin-ent, a NEW NA-tion,
con-CEIVED in LIB-erty, and DED-i-CAT-ed
to the PROP-o-SIT-ion that ALL MEN
are cre-ATE-d E-qual. NOW we are en-GAGED
in a great CIV-il WAR, TEST-ing WHETH-er
THAT NA-tion, or AN-y NA-tion
SO con-CEIVED and SO DED-i-cated,
can LONG en-DURE. We are MET on a GREAT
BAT-tle-FIELD of that WAR. We have COME
to DED-ic-cate a POR-tion of that FIELD, as a FIN-al
REST-ing PLACE for THOSE who here GAVE
their LIVES that THAT NA-tion might LIVE.
It is AL-to-GETH-er FIT-ting and PROP-er
that we should DO THIS. But in a LARG-er SENSE,
we can not DED-i-CATE -- we can not CON-se-CRATE,
we can not HAL-LOW - THIS GROUND.
The BRAVE MEN, LIV-ing and DEAD,
who STRUG-gled HERE, have CON-se-CRATE-d it,
far a-BOVE OUR POOR POW-er
to ADD or de-TRACT. The WORLD will little NOTE,
nor LONG re-MEM-ber what we SAY HERE,
but it can NEV-er for-GET what they DID HERE.
It is for US the LIV-ing, RATH-er, to be DED-i-cat-ed here
to the UN-FIN-ished WORK which they who FOUGHT here
have thus far so NOB-ly ad-VANCED. It is RA-ther for US
to BE here DED-i-cat-ed to the GREAT TASK
re-MAIN-ing be-FORE us - that FROM THESE
HON-ored-DEAD we take in-CREASED de-VOT-ion
to THAT CAUSE for which THEY GAVE
the LAST FULL MEA-sure of de-VOT-ion -
that WE HERE HIGH-ly re-SOLVE
that THESE DEAD SHALL NOT have
DIED in VAIN -- that this NA-tion, under GOD,
shall have a NEW BIRTH of FREE-DOM --
and that GOV-ern-MENT OF the PEO-ple,
BY the PEO-ple, FOR the PEO-ple,
SHALL NOT PER-ish from the EARTH.