To Wit: An E-zine On How To Be a Wit
07/11/2007

This is an E-zine from Thomas Christopher on how to be witty.

WITTY SELF-EXPRESSION PRODUCTS

I'm offering T-shirts and other self-expression products designed using the techniques discussed here. I've set up an online "store" at wittyselfexpression.com. I expect to use many of the designs as examples in this e-zine.

Learn From Churchill

We can learn a lot about public speaking from Winston Churchill. Churchill’s speeches were a kind of poetry. They were written out in lines, a kind of free verse. He could look down, read the line to himself, look up and say it. He would not easily loose his place, and he could speak each line in a single breath with a meaningful pause at the end.

Additionally, Churchill used several rhetorical techniques that gave structure to his statements, making them more memorable. In particular, he used repetition of words, particularly anaphora, the repetition of the initial words in successive lines. He used metaphor, finding a vivid image to make a point memorable. He used antithesis, placing contrasting words close together. And he used the repetition of sounds, alliteration and rhyme.

Here are some examples:

We shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.
we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills,
we shall never surrender.

This clearly shows anaphora, the repetition of initial words, and the meaningful lines that can be said in a single breath.

Now this is not the end.
It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

This shows Churchill’s repetition of words. It is one of the few examples where Churchill used chiasmus, repeating phrases in the reverse order.

Decided only to be undecided,
resolved to be irresolute,
adamant for drift,
solid for fluidity,
all-powerful to be impotent.

He wrote these words in While England Slept about Stanley Baldwin’s policies. Although he wrote them out as prose, they show the phrase structure of free verse. They are an admirable example of antithesis.

From Stettin in the Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic
an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

Here we see three techniques: Consonance, the repetition of consonant T sounds in the first two lines, particularly as alliteration. We see rhyme, albeit “weak syllable rhyme,” between Baltic and Adriatic. Third, we see a new metaphor. He introduced “Iron Curtain,” which became the name we used for the soviet block.

Dictators ride to and fro
upon tigers which they dare not dismount.
And the tigers are getting hungry.

This is another metaphor which was written in prose in While England Slept. I have broken it into lines, but am uncertain whether “upon tigers” might be better moved to the end of the first line. Where would you pause?

We will have no truce or parley with you [Hitler]...
You do your worst,
and we will do our best.

This shows even more clearly rhyme and alliteration: “Truce,” “you,” and “do” rhyme, albeit with “slant rhymes,” as do “your,” “worst,” and “our.” “We,” “will,” and “worst” alliterate, as do “you” and “your.”

Follow Churchill’s example. Write in free verse and using metaphor, antithesis, and the repetition of words and sounds to make your speeches more effective and your ideas more memorable.

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