“1950 Nobel Prize Banquet” Speech Summary, Text, & Analysis

In 1950, William Faulkner gave a moving speech at the Nobel Prize Banquet. Faulkner’s tribute to literature’s power remains influential. Below is the iconic “1950 Nobel Prize Banquet” Speech Summary, Text, & Analysis.

“1950 Nobel Prize Banquet” Speech Summary

We ran Faulkner’s speech through Yoodli, the free AI powered speech coaching platform. You can get started at www.yoodli.ai and view results for Faulkner here. Here’s a summary of his speech:

• This award has been received not as an individual, but as recognition of the speaker’s work.
• The human spirit is capable of producing something new and meaningful from pain and effort.
• Our current tragedy is the pervasive fear of physical destruction.
• This has led to a forgetting of the “problems of the human heart and conflict with itself”.
• Only writing about such problems is worth the effort and anguish that goes into it.
• The speaker encourages young people to confront these issues and to produce writing that shows love, honor, pity, pride, compassion and sacrifice.
• The speaker declines to accept the end of hope, and insists that even when doom has struck, the speaker’s voice will still be heard.

“1950 Nobel Prize Banquet” Speech Text

The Yoodli AI-powered speech coach provides this “1950 Nobel Prize Banquet ” speech text:

"Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work – a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed – love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking.

I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail."

“1950 Nobel Prize Banquet” Speech Analysis

Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Banquet speech employed poetic language and emotional intensity. We ran this speech through Yoodli’s AI-powered speech coach, and got back an analysis on various aspects of word choice and delivery. You can view the full results here.

Word Choice

Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Banquet speech used vivid imagery to celebrate the power of literature. Yoodli’s analysis reflects this, showing no filler words, very few weak words (just 1), and that some of his top key words were “young”, “heart”, “human”, and “man.”

Delivery

In the Delivery category, Yoodli provides scores on Centering, Pacing, Pauses, and Eye Contact. The highlight metric to look at here is pace. Faulkner spoke in very relaxed manner, at about 154 words per minute.

Wrapping Up

If you like this “1950 Nobel Prize Banquet” speech summary, text, and quick analysis, sign up to Yoodli for free and see how you can get the same kind of feedback on any speech you upload or record. It’s a great way to practice your own public speaking skills as you learn to inspire your audience, just as Faulkner did!