Full text and video of Barack Obama's speech

Barack Obama’s speeches always seem to take wing. There are two reasons why: the lyrics and the music. The printed text is the craft but for the art you have to watch television.

The writing in an Obama speech is usually very simple. The flight comes from the rhythm of the sentences, not the elevation of the language. On the rare occasion that he strains for effect the writing thuds to a halt. The best that can be said of the request for everyone to “put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day” is that you know what he means.

In fact, no speech will work if it genuinely is trite. Mr Obama poses some real arguments. He defines the issues he will have to face: two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. He is generous to opponents and the lack of triumphalism in addressing himself graciously to those who did not support him makes the speech more, rather than less, triumphant.

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• Bonjour 'Barack'

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The writing is also in a specifically American idiom. This speech revolves around the telling and retelling, both of them beautifully disguised, of the great American rags-to-riches myth. First, Mr Obama tells the story in an echo, by describing his progress to the White House. “Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.”

And then, having cleverly hitched himself to the nation, he tells the same tale again, this time broaching the big issue – race – through the life of Ann Nixon Cooper. A grievous historical story is told by taking a 106-year-old woman from Montgomery to Berlin and back again. The payoff is that on Tuesday she voted to change America. This is the deftest passage in the speech. By having the skill to evoke the injustice rather than spell it out, he gets you even when you read it yourself.

Of course, it’s better when he reads it. To get the full effect you need to mimic his voice, as the published text invites you to do. The way he hits the important word in each sentence so that you could get the argument just by listening to the words he puts aurally in bold. The way he lets some of the consonants slide, like preaching, which, in turn, is like singing. Commentators often say that Mr Obama can make ordinary words sing. He can, but that’s because he’s singing too.

— Philip Collins is a Times leader writer and former speechwriter for Tony Blair

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