from Speech Before the Spanish Armada Invasion

from Speech Before the Spanish Armada Invasion

IWBAT

—RL.12.1/RL.12.6

—

—Analyze rhetorical devices and connect to history.

Warm Up 

—Trust is an important factor in motivating people.

—Think about a time in your life when you tried to motivate someone to take an action you desired. What strategies did you use? Were your efforts successful? Why or why not?

ANALYZE RHETORICAL DEVICES

• —Elizabeth I was a brilliant speaker who captivated audiences through her command of rhetorical devices—techniques that communicate ideas and strengthen arguments. The following devices are often found in persuasive writing:

  —Repetition

  —Parallelism—

  —Antithesis—the use of similar grammatical constructions to express sharply contrasting ideas "Man proposes, God disposes.“"Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing." - Goethe.

  —Rhetorical question—

  —Analogy—The white mares of the moon rush along the sky

  Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens. Here, the poet constructs an analogy between clouds and mares. She compares the movement of the white clouds in the sky at night with that of the white mares on the ground.

  
  

Connect to History

—The background note preceding Queen Elizabeth’s speech discusses the event that inspired her address to English soldiers.

—As you read the text, you should also consider that women’s lives in 16th-century England were severely restricted. Most women received a very limited education, suitable for running a household. Women had to be subservient to their fathers and husbands.

— Elizabeth I was a remarkable exception: Her father, Henry VIII, provided her with an excellent education, and after the deaths of her father, brother, and older sister, she inherited the throne. Because she never married, Elizabeth remained free to make her own decisions.