WILD FLOWERS OF SPEECH
FIGURES OF SPEECH I MUST confess my heart has never warmed To those prim circles, always "wellinformed," Who hold themselves aloof within the fence Of their invisible circumference, To whom, in time of trouble, storm, or stress, Recourse is had by members of The Press; But if indeed our casual speech MUST: be Adorned with figures of geometry Why give the circle the monopoly? Why not admit to open. competition The total outfit of the geometrician? The squinting rhomboid, the aspiring cone, The quadrant and the mystic pentagon, The sly triangle, so renowned in wedlock Sinister cause of many a sorry deadlock, And what should baulk or hinder, if you.please, The showy trapezoid, the gay trapeze? I cannot find it in my heart to damn The dull but useful parallelogram; And why cold-shouldered, boycotted, and not in use the innocent, misunderstood hypotenuse That, bravely, like a hero of romance, Stares the right angle out. of countenance? Come one, come all, no matter if at random My choice among the lot, if choose I must, With no unworthy prejudice I trust, Would be, for sure, the bold broad-shouldered square, Symbol of honesty and dealings fair.
Arnold
Wall.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 399, 14 February 1947, Page 34
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200WILD FLOWERS OF SPEECH New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 399, 14 February 1947, Page 34
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