Given how strongly he feels about the strike, Dr. King leaves no rhetorical tools on the table, and we're betting if you dig in, you'll be able to find examples of logos, pathos, and ethos—the rh...

SpeechNo question about it, this is a really speechy speech. Some speeches work as well or better as written documents. When we read them, they sound a whole lot like essays. That can work fine if...

Hopeful, Bittersweet, HortatoryThe ending of "I've Been to the Mountaintop" is so rousing and so firmly linked to Dr. King's assassination that the feelings it evokes can sometimes overpower the re...

Climb Ev'ry Mountain; Ain't No Mountain High Enough. (Go ahead. Sing. We're not listening.) The proverbial guru perched on a peak. Even Shmoop's own "Tough-o-Meter."Everywhere you look, it's mounta...

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good t...

Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter to with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I wo...

(4) Base CampDr. K does go to the mountaintop, but not this mountaintop, thank goodness. Even at its most figurative, the language of this speech is beautifully clear, but King also makes numerous...

In-Text ReferencesHistorical and Political ReferencesClassical Greece (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, Aristophanes) (3.1–2)Roman Empire (4.1)Renaissance Europe (5.1)Martin Luther (6.1)Abr...

Martin Luther King, Jr. was not originally named Martin Luther King, Jr.: he was born Michael King Jr. His father, the minister Michael King Sr., decided to change his own name in homage to the Ger...