Abraham Lincoln Speech

“My friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of  a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I canot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

The use of these literary devices helps Abraham Lincoln create a touching speech to say goodbye to his people before departing to Washington. We can see he uses antithesis to create and impact on the listener, as it is a catching, strong and complex thing to understand, to put two opposite things on one sentence. "Here my children have been born, and one is buried." This quote relates two opposite ideas, the idea of a new life and the idea of death. This is used by Lincoln to create emotions on the listener, as it shows how close he was to the land he is now leaving, so close that he raised his children there and even had to bury one of them. The parallel structure is used to catch the attention of the listener, an example used in the text is the rule of three. "Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good...". The use of three ideas makes an impact on the reader and makes it easier to remember, that`s why a lot of speeches use this technique of the rule of three. Also we have the repetitions of "and" that is used to create the feeling that each idea is equally important.  The anaphora creates a feeling of relation, as it is used the same words again. "Here I have lived a quarter of  a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. " The repetition of "Here" makes the two sentences relate, and it is very well used, as Lincoln is trying to describe his feelings towards his hometown.