Success Is Counted Sweetest: Rhetoric Of The Civil War

Rhetoric of the Civil War History has influenced some of the greatest known writings, executed through varying means such as powerful speeches, captivating books, enticing plays, and heartfelt poetry, all which provide a glimpse into important aspects of the past. The Civil War, which took place from 1861 through 1865 brought about its fair share of discourses during this time in which the nation was split in two as the South threatened to secede from the United States and build their own Confederate States of America in order to keep their right to slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the president at the time and a supporter for the emancipation of the slaves wrote and delivered his Second Inaugural Address when he was reelected for a second term. Classified as rhetoric, his speech successfully utilizes all four resources of language; argument, appeal, arrangement, and artistic devices. Emily Dickinson’s poem “Success Is Counted Sweetest,” although categorized as poetry rather than rhetoric, it still manages to use all four resources of language in just three stanzas. Even though both of these esteemed figures were able to

When this reasoning is made public and aids in influencing an audience it becomes a useful tool of rhetoric. Both Lincoln and Dickinson utilized this resource in their work. Dickinson’s poem is arguing the claim that the war has many hardships and that victory cannot be achieved without going through tough times. She supports this argument exceptionally well when she writes, “The distant strains of triumph; Break, agonized and clear!” As seen from the last two lines of her poem, the use of the words strains and agonized support her stance on the difficulties experienced during the Civil War. Lincoln’s speech chooses to argue the point that the war was part of Gods will, and the outcome which he believes is leaning in favor of the North and in removing slavery is also of divine command and