Speech and Debate

Li_Akahi

I am competing on my schools speech and debate team this year in original oratory and poetry and prose. For original oratory, I am writing a speech about why animation is a socially relevant media form. For poetry and prose, I want to read a piece of H.P. Lovecraft's works for prose. It needs to be ten minutes in length. Do any of you know of any of his stories that could either be told in ten minutes or be shortened to ten minutes? Also, do you know of any poems that are very geeky that could be strung together in a set theme? It needs to be ten minutes as well. (I was originally planning to use some poetry from Alice in Wonderland, but my teacher said that it was to well known.)

HungryJoe

The Lady of Shallot by Tennyson is about ten minutes.

Sergeant Chip is a very nice story that could be read in ten minutes.

Stephen King's Jerualem's Lot and Crouch End are both more accessible than actual Lovecraft, but both have strong Lovecraft influence. I've always really liked Jerusalem's Lot.

The Rats in The Walls would be a good actual Lovecraft story that could be read in about ten minutes. You might need to do some editing.

Young Goodman Brown.

Try to find The Man Who Collected Poe by Robert Bloch.

Have you considered old reliables like The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, or The Bells?

Book II, Lines 622-797 of Paradise Lost:

. . . Abominable, inutterable and worse
Than Fables yet have feign'd or fear conceiv'd
Gorgons and Hydra and Chimeras dire . . .

Hamlet Act II, scene ii, Lines 468-518:

Anon he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command . . .

Starfox

The Last Question. I'm not sure how long it would take to read, though.

Andrew

You could read an excerpt from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift.

Jason

The winner of the smart, non-sucking poetry is e.e. cummings -- if you're allowed to do several, because they're short.
I especially like "she being Brand," which isn't about a car at all.

HungryJoe

My copy of John Brown's Body doesn't have line numbers (it's not the copy the link will show), but one of my favorite bits is around page 143 in my copy:

Wingate saw it all - but with altered eyes.
He was not yet broken on any wheel,
He had no wound of the flesh to heal,
He had seen one battle, but he was still
The corn unground by the watermill,
He had ridden the rainy winter through
And he and Black Whistle were good as new,
The Black Horse Troop still carried its pride
And rode as Yankees could not ride,
But, when he remembered a year-old dawn,
Something had come and something had gone,
And even now, when he smelt the Spring.
And his heart was hot with his homecoming,
There was a whisper in his ear
That said what he did not wish to hear,
"This is the last, this is the last,
Hurry, hurry, this is the last,
Drink the wine before yours is spilled,
Kiss the sweetheart before you're killed,
She will be loving, and she will grieve,
And wear your heart on her golden sleeve,
And marry your friend when he gets his leave.
It does not matter that you are still
The corn unground by the watermill,
The stones grind and they get their will.
Pluck the flower that hands can pluck,
Touch the walls of your house for luck,
Eat the fat and drink the sweet,
There is little savor in dead men's meat.
It does not matter that you once knew
Future and past and a different you.
That went by when the wind first blew.
There is no future, there is no past,
There is only this hour and it goes fast,
Hurry, hurry, this is the last,
This is the last,
This is the last"