Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FLOWERY, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FLOWERY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He was walking in the garden, and incautiously he spoke
Last Line: And I have just related what the zephyr told to me.
Subject(s): Speech; Oratory; Orators


He was walking in the garden, and incautiously he spoke
Of "a very flowery orator," Sir Sentimental Smoke.
"An orator of emptiness," as he went on to say,
"An orator whose vague conceits so flowery are and gay,
So vapid, incoherent, pompous, wandering, inane,
In brief, so very flowery, that they almost are insane."

Now when he left the garden what an angry clamor burst!
The rose was all a-tremble, but she found her voice the first.
"So we are vapid, are we?" indignantly she cried,
"And incoherent, are we?" asked the lily at her side.

"And think! he called us pompous!" murmured low the violet.
"And wandering! What slander!" cried the stiff-stalked mignonette.
"An outrage!" popped the poppy, and the rest agreed with him,
Whereat he framed this protest, which was voted with a vim: --

"Resolved, that all the flowers are insulted grievously
By the misuse of an adjective, to wit, of flowery.
Resolved, that every mortal is requested to refrain
From the adjective aforesaid as a synonym for 'vain,'
For 'silly,' 'wordy,' 'whimsical,' 'grandiloquent' or 'smart,'
And let it in the future play a more appropriate part.
For flowers are finely modelled, much in little, beauty's brief,
Perfection to a petal, and a volume in a leaf.

"So take your perfect orator, whose every word is fit,
A prince of thought and eloquence, of force and grace and wit,
And when he rises highest, in the senate's day of days,
Pronounce his speaking 'flowery,' and count it highest praise."

They asked a passing zephyr their courier to be,
And I have just related what the zephyr told to me.





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