I'll give my orator great store of words, Then add forgetfulness of words; give tact, But add forgetfulness that one must please; Give self-willed power, then add forgetfulness Of self, and power, in love for other men. I'll make my orator of fire and snow; Fire that a sullen audience cannot quench, Snow that the flame of passion cannot fire. Let him lose fear of men in love of truth. Let him become a purpose, not a man; Nay, rather, twice a man. And let him live Not in men's meeting hands, but in their lives That meet his purpose. As for chatterers Whose goal each hour is that poor hour's applause, Who would not gladly die to speech, if so Their theme might live, -- no orators are they. Though smooth their words and proud their sentences, Adorned with all the pomp of golden mouths, There's not a mocking-bird but beats the air More orator than they. O godlike men, That dare to utter God's words after Him, By self-denial and glad suffering Making those words your own, these gabbering times Have need of you. O teach our magpie race The living art of fruitful utterance. Speak words that are events. The tongue-tied horde, Their manliness in Mammon's gyves or Fear's, -- Teach them how men should talk. Rebuke the wrong And praise the right with heartiness, and know The whole wide universe is ear to you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CA' THE YOWES TO THE KNOWES by ROBERT BURNS HIGH FLIGHT by JOHN GILLESPIE MAGEE JR. THE FAREWELL. TO THE BRETHREN OF ST. JAMES'S LODGE, TARBOLTON by ROBERT BURNS DISAPPOINTMENT; QUATRAIN by THOMAS STEPHENS COLLIER |