Rhetoric and Figures of Speech in Obama's Inaugural Address: Sentence 4

Sentence 4: The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace.

This is the first attempt at metaphor. There are two examples: "rising tides of prosperity" and "still waters of peace." They are related to each other through three types of Parallelism: synonymous (tides & waters); antithetic (rising vs. still), and constructive, i.e. the same grammatical structure:

• adjective (rising, still) +
  
• noun (tides, waters) +
  
• prepositional phrase (of prosperity, of peace)

We could further note that the object of the preposition, which is also the final word of the phrase, begins with the letter "p", thereby adding Alliteration to ways in which the words and phrases are related.

Although the imagery is clearly evocative, the thought is not complete. The problem, as I see it, lies largely with "prosperity" and "peace" being complements rather than opposites. Right now this sentence is a very attractive two-legged stool. There are two options: (1) add a third leg or (2) a third and fourth.

The former option could involve the use of tricolon, i.e. add a third parallel phrase like in the opening sentence, something that works the way melody-harmony-rhythm or father-mother-child or subject-verb-object all work together.

The latter option involves adding two new phrases, each one antithetical to the two already in place. The problem with this option is that it can make the sentence run-on. The best move is to add them into the next sentence. As we will see from the analysis of Sentence 5, this is exactly what the Obama speech-writers chose to do.