I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted .every hill and mountain shall be made low , the rough places will be made plains , and the crooked places will be made straight , and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed , and all flesh shall see it together.
Could someone help me in understanding why did the speaker not use "shall be" instead of "will be" in the bold area; although, in all lines he used "shall be" even when "will be" should be used.
Best Answer
As clusterdude has suggested, this could have been entirely random. And "the interchangeable use of shall and will is now part of standard British and US English."
Having said that, I think that "shall" sounds a bit more epic and even ancient than "will", and that those with "shall" -- (1), (2), (5) and (6) -- are more epic or even ancient than are those with "will" -- (3) and (4). Therefore, assuming that MLK chose the words really carefully, it could have been intentional word choices on the part of MLK.