as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

King intentionally uses the same words to begin several sentences in a row here because he wants to highlight the injustices inherent in the daily lives of Black people in America. Through repetition, he makes a compelling point that there is still much to be dissatisfied about in America and, therefore, much work that still needs to be done.

Parallelism is a technique that uses similar combinations of words and syntax to deliver a single idea. The words aren't the same, but the way they are constructed is very similar. Consider this segment of the speech:

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Here, King has shared some of the goals of the civil rights movement by creating a series of successive clauses that all begin with an infinitive verb and end with the word together, indicating the ultimate purpose of his work.

Together, repetition and parallelism create a convincing argument about the need for social changes in America.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech utilizes numerous persuasive rhetorical techniques, among them parallelism and repetition. One good example of both is towards the end of the speech, beginning with "And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire." The section which follows sees King employing several rhetorical devices to convey his point: he uses a form of parallelism called anaphora (using the same initial set of words in several phrases consecutively), and meanwhile the use of enumeratio (listing, one by one, the various states and parts of the country in which freedom should ring) helps convey the span of what must be changed. King then uses repetition to further reinforce the appeal of this section: "and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city."

The power of the final two lines of the speech relies heavily upon repetition, as well as another technique known as the "power of three," which orators often use to great effect: "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Of course, King also uses parallelism and repetition throughout the section which gives the speech its name, as King repeats the refrain, "I have a dream" in between other examples of parallelism (anaphora) in which the phrase "I have a dream" precedes an example of that dream. The repetition of the refrain, in conjunction with this parallelism, serves to intensify this section to a climax.

Parallelism means repeating the same grammatical structure or word choice within a sentence or in consecutive sentences. It creates, like rhyme or alliteration, a pleasing sense of rhythm.

An example of parallelism in King's "I Have a Speech" occurs when he states that freedom from slavery

came as a great beacon light of hope

and then states that it

came as a joyous daybreak.

As we can see, King repeats the words "came as a" and then follows them with an image of light.

Another example of parallelism comes in paragraph five, in the repetition of the words "we refuse to believe" at the start of two consecutive sentences. In the next paragraph, King repeats "now is the time" three times to bring emphasis to this concept.

The most forceful use of parallelism occurs at the end of the speech, in the multiple repetitions of "I have a dream" and "let freedom ring." These statements bring the speech to a crescendo and lend a hypnotic, spell-binding quality to King's utterances as he rises to his climax. The words "let freedom ring" mimic the repeating ringing of a bell. At this point, King is using pure rhetoric, invoking the long-standing American cultural motif of freedom to create strong positive feelings for the civil rights cause in his audience.

King's goal is to bring people together in a sense of unity, purpose, and good feeling, so he plays openly to their emotions as the speech comes to a stirring end.