Literary Devices found in "I Have a Dream"

Alliteration
page1. capital to cash a check
page2. dark and desolate
sweltering summer
marvelous militancy
page3. sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together
color of their skin but by the content of their character

Anaphora.
page 1. "one hundred years later" four times
page 2. "Now is the time" four times
"We cannot" two times
page 3. "We can not be satisfied" five times
"Go back to ~"six times
page 3-4. "I have a dream" nine times
page 4. "With this faith" three times
"Let freedom ring" ten times

Metaphor.
"America has given the Negro people a bad check ~ security of justice" :
check = freedom, humanity.

"This sweltering summer ~ justice emerges"
summer=Negro's legitimate discontent, autumn=freedom, equality
whirwinds=revolt, bright day = justice

"we will be able to transfomr~knowing that we will be free one day"
jangling discords=discrimination against Blacks
beautiful sympphony of brotherhood=equality

Ethos
"Five score years ago" - Emancipation Proclamation
"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence"
"Nineteen sixty-three"
"justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream"-Bible

Pathos
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day ~ by the content of their character"
"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last"
(not just the content itself but the tone and the mood are appealing to the audience's emotions)
"But one hundred years later, ~ And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition."
"The marvelous new militancy ~ inextricably bound to our freedom."