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Oratory


Public oratory

Is not, I think, for me.

To stand upon a box

And utter to the vox

Populi words of ass-

-ertion which could be crass,

Are never, for myself

Statements of verbal wealth.


The moving finger writes,

And for all its frail might -

- Ephemerality -

Carry some piety,

Which, speaking candidly,

Lacking verbosity,

Trades in so much hot air,

To make truth disappear.


But the great orator,

Waxing lyrical or

Raising the passionate

Mob into maddened hate,

Lynches some poor beggar

Who ne’er posed a danger

But whose unhappy face

Happened in the wrong place.

© R M Meyer

North Devon, September 2018

[after Exeter's 'Save the Badger' march]