Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IMPROMPTU SPEECHES, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS Poet's Biography First Line: A sudden audience, strikes a blow Last Line: A torrent oratorical! Subject(s): Speech; Oratory; Orators | ||||||||
A sudden audience strikes a blow On some men's brainy dynamite, And, grandly crashing, up they go In clouds of rhetoric out of sight, And heaven be praised when they alight! On my bewildered brain, alas! Howe'er imperious fall the blow, It strikes but on a flabby mass Of feeble putty and of dough; Of feeble intellectual dough. Forefend that impious call inane To more than Moses' miracle, That bids me pierce my stubborn brain For thought that will not heed the spell; For eloquence that scorns the spell. And teach all fools, ye blessed powers, That thought must on still uplands fall And slowly wind through musing hours Before it leap to eyes of all A torrent oratorical! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION by ANSELM HOLLO THE ORATION; AFTER CAVAFY by CAROLYN KIZER A VOICE FROM THE SWEAT-SHOPS (A HYMN WITH RESPONSES) by LOUIS UNTERMEYER A SIMPLIFICATION by RICHARD WILBUR MOTHER TONGUE by RANDY BLASING THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#13): 1. ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND THUNDER by MARVIN BELL THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#13): 2. MORE ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND THUNDER by MARVIN BELL SATIRE: 1 by AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS A BATTLE SONG (WRITTEN IN THE WORLD WAR) by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS |
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