The Gettysburg Address
About 270 words in three paragraphs, split into 20 phrases to learn. Five copies in Lincoln's hand survive, and their wording differs a little; this is the Bliss copy (1864), the last he wrote, the only one he signed and dated, and the text carved in the Lincoln Memorial. When typing, "battlefield" and "cannot" are accepted.
Abraham Lincoln gave this short speech on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the battle there. It takes about two minutes to say and is one of the most famous speeches in American history, which makes it a classic piece of memory work.
Narrate it first: read it aloud and say what each paragraph does. The first looks back to 1776, the second looks at the battlefield, and the third looks ahead. Those three are your big chunks. Inside each, learn three or four phrases at a time and recite with the page covered. Lincoln built the speech on patterns that help memory: three in a row (dedicate, consecrate, hallow; of the people, by the people, for the people) and pairs (living and dead; say here, did here). Picture each phrase on a walk across the field, and come back on day 1, 3, 7 and 21.
Encode make it vivid → Space bring it back on day 1, 3, 7, 21 → Retrieve pull it from your head. From the infographic Remember It on Purpose.
The Gettysburg Address
| No. | Phrase | Paragraph |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, | 1. The founding |
| 2 | conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. | 1. The founding |
| 3 | Now we are engaged in a great civil war, | 2. The battlefield |
| 4 | testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. | 2. The battlefield |
| 5 | We are met on a great battle-field of that war. | 2. The battlefield |
| 6 | We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, | 2. The battlefield |
| 7 | as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. | 2. The battlefield |
| 8 | It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. | 2. The battlefield |
| 9 | But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. | 3. The task ahead |
| 10 | The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, | 3. The task ahead |
| 11 | far above our poor power to add or detract. | 3. The task ahead |
| 12 | The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, | 3. The task ahead |
| 13 | but it can never forget what they did here. | 3. The task ahead |
| 14 | It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work | 3. The task ahead |
| 15 | which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. | 3. The task ahead |
| 16 | It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us— | 3. The task ahead |
| 17 | that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion— | 3. The task ahead |
| 18 | that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain— | 3. The task ahead |
| 19 | that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— | 3. The task ahead |
| 20 | and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. | 3. The task ahead |
Narrate it first: read it aloud and say what each paragraph does. The first looks back to 1776, the second looks at the battlefield, and the third looks ahead. Those three are your big chunks. Inside each, learn three or four phrases at a time and recite with the page covered. Lincoln built the speech on patterns that help memory: three in a row (dedicate, consecrate, hallow; of the people, by the people, for the people) and pairs (living and dead; say here, did here). Picture each phrase on a walk across the field, and come back on day 1, 3, 7 and 21. · teddyrookbook.com/memory/challenges/gettysburg-address/
Sources
- Abraham Lincoln Online: The Gettysburg Address (the Bliss copy and the other versions)
- Library of Congress, Abraham Lincoln Papers: Alexander Bliss to John G. Nicolay, March 7, 1864 (autograph copy of the Gettysburg Address)
- American Battlefield Trust: Versions of the Gettysburg Address
Checked October 31, 2026. Progress is kept on this device only (per learner). More lists: all memory challenges · memory games.