What does the word consecrate mean in the Gettysburg Address?

What does the word consecrate mean in the Gettysburg Address?

consecrate. give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. hallow. render holy by means of religious rites.

What does hallow this ground mean in the Gettysburg Address?

When we hallow something, we say that it is sacred, that it’s holy in some way. Lincoln’s point was that it wasn’t up to him or to the crowd of people there that day to say that the land at Gettysburg is sacred.

What does we Cannot dedicate We Cannot consecrate we Cannot Hallow mean?

Lincoln is saying that the ground cannot be declared holy, because: The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. These words indicate the great respect Lincoln had for those who gave up their lives to fight for a noble cause.

What did Lincoln mean when he said we Cannot hallow this ground?

Lincoln is saying that the ground cannot be declared holy, because: Lincoln means that the extreme sacrifice the men who had fought and died on that battlefield have made was in itself a greater act than any other could now, or ever, perform in ordaining the soil on which they died.

Why does he say we can not dedicate We Cannot consecrate we Cannot hallow this ground?

When Lincoln expresses that “we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow, this ground” it means that he thinks that the soldiers themselves consecrated the ground with their sacrifice.

Why does Lincoln repeat We Cannot?

For such a short speech, Abraham Lincoln used an awful lot of the same words. Why? Hint: it’s not for lack of vocabulary. Lincoln had a big enough vocabulary to not repeat himself, but using “we cannot” lent the sentence a more poetic structure and tapped into humanity’s subconscious appreciation of the rule of three.