- "the quicksands of racial injustice" (land) - Racism is a slippery slope where struggling/fighting for equality leads to sinking for colored people.
- "The Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
- "manacles of segregation" (land/water) - Blacks feel isolated in a world that dislikes their presence enough to assign separate drinking fountains, schools, and buses to them.
- "Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice." (light/dark) - Racism is a bleary, gloomy subject that makes the world dark; if we would only embrace equality, the world would be a brighter, better place.
- "This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality." (seasons/land?) - Segregation is such a heated issue in this time, it is almost as unbearable as summertime. MLK longs for the cool, refreshing release of justice, which closely mimicks the relief autumn brings.
Allusion (just to name a few) :
- "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred." - Bible/Holy Grail
- "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal." - Declaration of Independence
- "Table of brotherhood" - possible reference to The Last Supper painting
- "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted" - possible reference to the Valley of Death
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