In a fast-paced world, constantly in motion—with attention spans shortening and scrolling on to new stimuli—any speech needs to be momentous to captivate people.

While ‘momentous’ means ‘of great importance or significance’ (eg. a momentous decision), the suffix ‘-ous’ means ‘characterised by’, suggesting that what is ‘momentous’ is characterised by the moment it occurs. In that way, a momentous speech is one which makes the moment of its delivery a historic one, where every listener feels as if they are present and witnessing a significant event in time.

A speech can be made into a moment by making a moment out of the speech. This emphasis can be generated through the use of what is called deictic language—ie. expressions whose meanings depend upon the context of their use. Deictic words or phrases include this, that, these, those, then, here, now. The first person address, with its directness, also contributes to this collective sense with we, I, you.

A famous literary example of this technique comes from Shakespeare’s Henry V, when he delivers his famed St Crispin’s Day speech on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt:

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
[…]
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

In the speech, Henry claims the historical status of ‘this day’ as a legend for his soldiers to augment through the battle and to commemorate in the future. He builds to incorporate his audience into a compelling and memorable moment with him (‘we’). Henry plays on this sense of complicity by stating that those absent will ‘think themselves accursed they were not here’, only every listener is now present and part of the legend.