Martin Luther King, Jr. 在林肯纪念堂前向25万人发表著名的演说“I Have a Dream”中的经典段落
“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been scared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.”
“But one hundred years later, the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.”作者用大量的比喻：将“希望”（hope）比作“伟大的灯塔”（as a great beacon），将“不公正”（injustice.）比作（烧灼黑奴的）“烈焰”（flames），将（黑奴所遭受的）“监禁”（captivity），比作“漫漫长夜(long night)，将“种族隔离”(segregation)比作“桎梏”(manacles)，将“种族歧视”（discrimination）比作“锁链”(chains)，将（黑人的）“贫穷”(poverty)比作“孤鸟”(lonely island)，将（美国社会的）“物质繁荣”( material &prosperity)比作“汪洋大海”(a vast ocean),此外,还用了重复句式,如:one hundred years later(重复三次) , 这些形象的表达方式既简单易懂，又深入人心，所以能引起当时处在美国底层的听众的强烈共鸣。
“Now is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. ”
Martin Luther King在此次用了重复和排比修辞，如:“Now is the time to…”,增强了语言的表达力,他将“种族隔离”(segregation)比喻用“黑暗而孤独的峡谷”（dark and desolate valley），将“种族平等”（racial justice）比作洒满阳光的道路（the sunlit path），将“种族的不公正”（racial injustice）比作“流沙”（quicksands），将“手足情”（brotherhood）比作“坚实的岩石”（solid rock），表明黑人渴望自由、平等，友爱，召唤黑人去推翻不平等的制度。
“Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities.”用了排比修辞，增强了语言的表达力
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”（我梦想有一天，这个国家将会奋起，实现其立国信条的真谛：“我们认为这些真理不证自明：人人生而平等）
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.（我梦想有一天，在佐治亚州的红色山岗上，昔日奴隶的儿子能够同昔日奴隶主的儿子同席而坐，亲如手足）
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
(我梦想有一天，我的四个孩子将生活在一个不是以肤色的深浅，而是以品格的优劣作为评判标准的国家里。)
“Let Freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!确”（让自由之钟敲响在……）
“Let Freedom ring from the Curvaceous peaks of California!”（让自由之钟敲响在……）
“Let Freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!”
“Let Freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! ”
“Let Freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, Let Freedom ring.”
“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
“我想一个梦想…(I have a dream…), “让自由之钟敲响在……(Let Freedom ring from…)”等具有强大的感召力的重复和排比句式起到了深化主题的作用,并将整个演讲推向高潮, 为黑人争取平等待遇指明方向-既非暴力运动另外,文中还运用其它的修辞手法, 如: alliteration(头韵)sweltering summer, state sweltering,
虽然我们不能亲耳聆听马丁〃路德〃金慷慨激昂的声音，从这篇文章中我们感受到一位美国黑人运动的领袖向不合理的社会制度发出的发自内心深处的呐喊.其强大的生命力产生于作者的深刻的思想内涵，真实、丰富的情感和恰如其分的表达方式。