November 24, 2005
Brief and Bromidic Posted by Frederic D. Schwarz at 07:00 AM EST What I wrote yesterday about memorization applies to anything that’s short and well written, even if the sentiments it expresses are as trite as those of the Gettysburg Address. Am I the only one who was disappointed, on first reading the address all the way through, at its utter conventionality? Ground hallowed by the selfless sacrifice of these noble men; gave their lives to carry on the sacred work of our nation’s founders; their deaths not in vain; etc., etc. All true, to be sure, and affecting to anyone who has a heart, and expressed with admirable concision—though it basically amounts to a “What he said!” after Edward Everett’s speech, which can be read here: http://douglassarchives.org/ever_b21.htm However common it may be to denigrate Everett’s oration—and he certainly does go on quite a bit—you have to admit that he gave the people what they wanted. It’s amazing what people used to do for fun before there was television. Lincoln could get away with his short-and-sweet cameo only because Everett had already satisfied the era’s appetite for grandiloquence. As we all know, Lincoln dashed off the address in his spare moments during the weeks before the battlefield’s dedication. It’s certainly a tribute to his powers of composition that with the cares of a nation pressing down on his shoulders and all the enormous demands on his time, he was able to come up with something so memorably phrased. But behind the simple eloquence, it’s still basically a cliché—though no less powerful for that, and like most clichés, it does express an important truth
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