Oratory
The spoken word, according to precise plan:
'Rhetoric'!
Is not to be trusted.
Oration is a power play, a skilled practice
Designed first to provoke and then, to persuade.
It can short circuit sense
Deliberately.
Apart from language chosen, and developed
To make best point,
The power of performance delivers to a prescribed end.
Polished oration plays our senses
Swamping reason in a wash of reactive feelings
Deliberately provoked and curried
To precise purpose.
Oratory is a skill
Designed and proven over centuries of practice
To disrupt - to influence - to convince.
It has nothing to do with the message delivered.
With the 'right' words and a calculated delivery
It is possible to 'sell' anything
To anybody.
Cynthia Buell Thomas
March, 2019
keith jeffries
Sun 10th Mar 2019 17:48
Cynthia,
This poem raises questions about the nature of the word itself. Do you consider oratory to be the clever use of language to manipulate or is merely the ability of some to be more articulate in what they say?
Thank you for this
Keith