The speech opens with a direct address to some special guests and the audience more generally, both locally present and listening to the broadcast, and it will end by including all of these together as 'my fellow Americans'. So the President first shows respect for the status of the distinguished guests, then cleverly reduces them all to the common level of citizens-making them seem all equal,as they are before God.
Antithetic parallelism:
antithesis is in the 'not...but' structure (several examples in text)
'...we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom...'Imperatives:
The language has a stately quality that ncomes from echoing the style of the English bible- so we read four times imperative verb clauses beginning 'let'-reminding the audience of how God said @let there be light', while 'the word' has an echo of the opening of Saint John's gospel. Later in the speech Kennedy uses the gospel image of the light of the world-extended metaphor.
'Let the word go forth' and 'let every nation know' could almost (though they do not) come from the Bible- the lexis is timeless here, and both 'forth'and ''nation' are words we meet throughout the Old Testament in versions in the King James tradition. Why? Influential to a Christian American audience.
Allusion (Atkinson):
- Alludes to the Declaration of Indepence in referring to the 'right of man' that come from ' the hand of God'. Influence audience- shared knowledge.
- Alludes to Rousseau's famous statement- slightly alters its application (being poor) Once again shared knowledge- audience.
Simple verbal embellishment to influence- also creates rhythm in speech.
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