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Sep 2, 2026 5 min

O, Tempora! O, Mores!

from Ririro.com - Poetry Hosted by Ririro

"O, Tempora! O, Mores!" is a satirical poem by Edgar Allan Poe that takes sharp, comedic aim at the declining manners and hollow vanities of his era. The speaker wrestles with whether to weep like Heraclitus or laugh like Democritus at the absurdity around him — and settles, grumpily, on a growl. His chief target is a preening shop boy named Pitts, whose curls, coat, and ankle consume more thought than his brain ever could. Poe's wit is dry, his mockery affectionate yet cutting. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ririro-com-poetry--6577576/support.

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Song Against Songs, The by G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) LibriVox LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of The Song Against Songs by G. K. Chesterton. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 16, 2011. Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighing around 21 stone (130 kg; 290 lb). His girth gave rise to a famous anecdote. During World War I a lady in London asked why he was not 'out at the Front'; he replied, 'If you go round to the side, you will see that I am.' On another occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw: "To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England". Shaw retorted, "To look at you, anyone would think you have caused it". P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as "a sound like Chesterton falling onto a sheet of tin."( Summary from Wikipedia )

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