The Gettysburg Address Analysis

The Gettysburg Address Analysis

Read the excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address below. Then, answer the questions that follow in complete sentences.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

1. What historical event is Lincoln referencing when he says, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation"?

2. Explain the significance of the phrase "all men are created equal" in the context of the Civil War.

3. Lincoln states that the Civil War is "testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long  ."

4. The speech was delivered on the battlefield of  , which was a pivotal battle in the Civil War.

5. What is the main purpose of Lincoln's address?

6. Lincoln believes that the world will long remember what he said at Gettysburg.

7. Analyze the rhetorical device of anaphora in the Gettysburg Address. Provide specific examples from the text and explain their effect on the audience.