The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
Rhetorical Device: Asyndeton
Background on Gettysburg
Lincoln delivered this speech five months after the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the war. To gain a sense of the carnage from those three days of fighting, watch this 8-minute clip from Ken Burns' "Civil War" series.
Lincoln delivered this speech five months after the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the war. To gain a sense of the carnage from those three days of fighting, watch this 8-minute clip from Ken Burns' "Civil War" series.
Listening to the Gettysburg Address
Now, before we discuss the rhetorical device of asyndeton in the speech, listen below to actor Jeff Daniels (who starred in the film Lincoln) read aloud the Gettysburg Address.
As you listen, write down one or two repeated words on the sheet in the file below and then share them with a partner. What kind of tone or feeling emerges from the words that are repeated? Keep in mind that Abraham Lincoln was delivering this speech while in a cemetery he was dedicating to the approximately 50,000 men who lost their lives at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.
the_use_of_asyndeton_in_the_gettysburg_address.docx | |
File Size: | 73 kb |
File Type: | docx |
What Is Asyndeton?
Asyndeton means leaving out a conjunction (and, but, or) between parts of a sentence that would usually have one.
Click on the video below to hear how to pronounce ASYNDETON, and then say it yourself a couple of times.
Now take a look at this page about asyndeton and write down, on the same worksheet, one way asyndeton can strengthen an oration or speech. Discuss what you found with a partner.
Abraham Lincoln's Use of Asyndeton
Lincoln used asyndeton to great effect in the Gettysburg Address, as noted by the historian Garry Wills in Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. Before we hear what Wills said about it, try to figure out where asyndeton occurs the speech yourself.
To do that, listen to the speech again or read it aloud yourself, while also looking at it on the first slide below.
Your job here is to try to find at least one example of asyndeton. For instance, see if you can find an example of where he could have used "and" but didn't. Write down the phrase on the worksheet if you see it.
It's no problem if you can't hear or see it right away. We will discuss!
Finding Asyndeton
Share with a partner the examples you found, if any.
Then, scroll down to the second slide above and look at the four different examples, in different colors, of asyndeton.
Pick one of the four examples and write the words of the example on your worksheet. Then explain in a couple of sentences how you think the asyndeton makes the phrases or sentences more powerful than they would be otherwise. (Give a reason specific to the speech, not a general reason.) Share the sentences with a partner.
Now, type those sentences into this Google form so that we can put together all of your ideas about asyndeton in the speech. Afterward, your teacher will put all of your responses into a Wordle or another neat word cloud generator, to see common themes.
Finally, Let's Compare Your Ideas With Those of Historian Garry Wills
How similar are your ideas to his?
"The trick, of course, was not just to be brief but to say a great deal in the fewest words. Lincoln justly boasted, of his Second Inaugural's six hundred words, 'Lots of wisdom in that document, I suspect.' The same is even truer of the Gettysburg Address, which uses roughly half that number of words.
"The unwillingness to waste words shows up in the Address's telegraphic quality [brief like a telegram] - the omission [leaving out] of most coupling [connecting] words - that rhetoricians [people who study language] call asyndeton. Triple phrases sounds as to a drumbeat, with no 'and' or 'but' to slow their insistency:
we are engaged...
We are met...
We have come...
we can not dedicated..
we can not consecrate...
we can not hallow...
that from these honored dead...
that we here highly resolve...
that this nation, under God...
government of the people,
by the people,
for the people...
From Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 171-2.