Speaking Lesson #1

by | May 26, 2011 | Dorothy Sarnoff | 0 comments

Do you know who spoke BEFORE President Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863?  It was Edward Everett.  He was the main speaker that day. Do you know the first sentence of his speech? No, of course you don’t. Here it is.

Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. 

Two hours later he finished his speech.  I bet the audience had stopped listening long before he stopped speaking.


After he spoke, President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address.  Do you know the first sentence? If you are an American (and even if you are not) I bet my bottom dollar there is a great chance you do.  Here it is. 

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.

9 sentences later he finished his speech. 138 years later and we are still listening.