Declamation Piece 162j2c

A declamation piece is a speech that was originally given by a well-known orator. Declamation speeches originated in ancient Greece as a way for people to practice public speaking skills, and they have now evolved into a common practice for high school students as a way to learn how to give oral presentations and improve speaking skills. The National Catholic Forensic League has a yearly public speaking event where students compete and give their declamations. The competition is for students in grades nine or ten and the pieces cannot be more than ten minutes long. Many students choose famous speeches and literary works for their declamation piece, with the idea being to recite the speech with the same power and authority as the original speaker. The speech should be memorized and conveyed in a way that is memorable, although not acted out. The speech should also be spoken in a way that is subtle and detached, not dramatic.

Declamation Piece: The Lost Girl by dhang I am a girl, young in heart and in mind… I am carefree, I enjoy doing nothing but play,play and play… I seldom go to school but hmp! nobody cares! Instead,you will see me roaming around standing at the nearby canto, or hanging around at the sari-sari store standing beside the jukebox stand… One day I asked I asked my mother to teach me how to behave, to live, and appreciate all the beautiful things in life. Would you like to know what she told me? She said… " Can’t you see, I have to hurry up for my majong session! " So I turned to my father to console me. But what a wonderful word he did tell me… " Child, I have to finish my overtime work…Here’s 500 pesos, go and ask your teacher about that question…" Sadly,I attended my class… But I heard nothing but the echoing voice of my teacher,torturing me with her words… " Hey yo lazy girl! Why waste your time studying those things? When up to now you can’t even multiply seven by nine? Go home and don’t bother me!!!" I am lost…confused…I don’t know what to do with myself… Where are my parents to guide me? My teachers to give me inspirations? My friends, when I play? I’m lazy and irresponsible. When I try to study, I get punished for not being able to answer. Where now…I’m confused… Somebody, please help me… You say that the world is beautiful, why is it treating me this way? Hear me please! Help me please! Help me… I am lost…

Declamation Piece: MURDERESS It’s already twelve o’clock. Oh, God, I’m hungry! I’ve been running and hiding for almost three days. I’m dead tired. I need some rest. But no, they are looking for me! And if they find me, I will be put to jail. But, where can I hide? Leo’s father is so influential, so powerful. He is the governor of our great province and I happened to kill his son! No, don’t accuse me like that! I’m not a murderess! Hear me, I’m begging you, I tell you I’m not a murderess. Audience, let me explain, please. Okay, okay, okay! It all happened in school one day. I went to the library to find a book. Then I found it. I got so engrossed to what I was reading that I almost didn’t notice the time. It was gone past six and, oh my! I think I was the only student left in the library. To my dismay, Leo was waiting for me outside. I wanted to hide but it was too late. He was already in front of me. ―Hi, Brenda! Can I drive you home?‖ I shook my head irritatingly. My God, how I hate him! He often sends me scented love letters in pink stationery which I sent back all unopened. He sends me roses and chocolates, too. They are my favorites. I wanted so much to eat the chocolates, but I hate the person who gave them. So I throw them into the trash. How could I ever get away from this guy? ―Hey, Leo, wait a minute! If you want to drive me home, thanks, but no thanks! I’m old enough to go home on my own, okay? So, please stop following me like a dog! And besides, I’m too young for love and I don’t accept any suitors, understand?‖ ―But, Brenda, I love you! Can’t you understand? I can give you anything you want. Say it and you’ll have it. And, Brenda, , I can get everything I want by hook or crook. So you’d better be good to me or else. Ha… ha… ha…!‖ And he started laughing like a monster. I got so scared. I know how powerful his family was, but I still insisted, ―Leo, how can you be such a jerk? I don’t like you and I don’t love you. In fact, I hate you! Now, will you leave me alone?‖ But instead of leaving, do you know what he did? He pushed me so hard against the wall and started kissing me. I was shouting for help, but no, no one was there! ―Somebody, help me, please! Please, please! Help! Help!‖ Then he gave me a big, big punch on my stomach. Oh my God! It was painful! But even before he reached for me again, I spotted a rusty knife and grabbed it. ―Now, Mr. Leo Monteverde, try to kiss me again, attempt to rape me again, and I will never ever forgive you! Go to hell! Um… um… ummm!‖ I didn’t know how many times I pushed the rusty knife in his body. Then I noticed something. Blood, blood… there’s a blood on my hands! Leo, Leo…! Oh, God! I killed Leo! No, I’m not a murderess! He was going to rape me and I just defended myself. I didn’t mean to do it, I’m not a murderess! I’m not a murderess! But I killed Leo…! I killed him! I’m a murderess! Ha! Ha! I’m a murderess! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Declamation Piece: GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY She stood at the bar of Justice, A creature, wan and wild, In form too small for a woman, In features too old for a child. For a look so worn and pathetic Was stamped on her pale young face, It seemed long years of suffering Must have left that silent trace. ―Your name,‖ said the judge, as he eyed her with a kindly look, yet keen. Mary Aguirre, if you please, sir.‖‖ ―And your age?‖ ―I am fifteen.‖ ―Well, Mary,‖ – and then from a paper He slowly and gravely read – ―You are charged here – I am sorry to say it – with stealing three loaves of bread. ―You took not like an old offender, And I hope that you can show the charge to be false. Now tell me, Are you guilty of this, or not?‖ A ionate burst of weeping Was at first her sole reply; But she dried her tears in a moment, And looked in the judge’s eyes. I will tell you just how it was, sir My father and mother are dead, And my little brothers and sisters were hungry And asked me for bread. At first, I earned it for them By working hard all day.

But somehow the times were hard, sir, and the work all fell away. I could get no more employment, The weather was bitter cold; The young ones cried and shivered So what was I to do, sir? I am guilty, but do not condemn; I took – O! was it stealing? – The bread to give to them. Every man in the courtroom, Graybeard and thoughless youth – Knew, as he looked upon her, That the prisoner spoke the truth, Out from their pockets came kerchiefs, Out from old, faded wallets Treasures hoarded for years. The judge’s face was a study, The strangest you ever saw, As he cleared his throat and murmured Something about the law. For one so learned in such matters, So wise in dealing with men He seemed, on a simple question Sorely puzzled just then. No one blamed him, or wondered When at last these words they heard ―The sentence of this young prisoner is for the present deferred.‖ And no one blamed him or wondered When he went to her and smiled And tenderly left from the courtroom Himself, the ―guilty‖ child!

Declamation Piece: BAD GIRL Hey! Every Body seems to be staring at me.. You! You! All of you! How dare you to stare at me? Why? Is it because I’m a bad girl? A bad girl I am, A good for nothing teen ager, a problem child? That’s what you call me! I smoke. I drink. I gamble at my young tender age. I lie. I cheat, and I could even kill, if I have too. Yes, I’m a bad girl, but where are my parents? You! You! You are my good parents? My good elder brother & sister in this society were I live? Look…look at me…What have you done to me? You have pampered and spoiled me, neglected me when I needed you most! In trusted me to a yaya, whose intelligent was much lower than mine! While you go about your parties, your meetings and gambling sessions… Thus… I drifted away from you! Longing for a fathers love, yearning for a mothers care! As I grow up, everything change! You too have change! You spent more time in your pokers, mahjong tables, bars and night clubs. You even landed on the headline of the news paper as crook, peddlers and racketeers. Now, you call my name; accuse me in everything I do to myself? Tell me! How good you are? If you really wish to ensure my future Then hurry….hurry back home! Where I await you, because I need you… Protect me from all evil influences that will threaten at my very own understanding… But if I am bad, really bad…then, you’ve got to help me! Help me! Oh please…Help me!

Declamation Piece: Taken For Granted ―Christians? Christians?‖ Have you heard that call? They’re looking for me. That’s definitely me. You’re in doubt and Why? You want me to give you proofs? Oh! That’s very easy. Who told you to doubt that I am a Christian? I am a Christian! How? I went to church. I pray. I have my religion. I read the Bible. I love kids and I am giving them what they want. I sing gospel songs. Now you’re telling me that you are in doubt? How dare you to question me? Can’t you see? Or Are you blind? I am the true definition of a Christian. You’re so pathetic; you don’t have the right to question me that way. What?! You want to ask me more?!… I’ll think about it for a second. Hmhm… Ok! I’m sure I’ll be able to answer all your questions fluently. Go… Ask me…. You’re asking me if I go to church every Sunday?! I told you… I GO TO CHURCH… ahmm b-bu-but not every Sunday. Every other Sunday I guess that’s fine with the Lord. Why?! I-I-I have a project every other Sunday. Yes r-r-right, I have a project. The Lord understands that. Liar?! I’m not a liar. I’m telling you the truth in fact I went to church last three Sundays straight and Oh my Gosh Cris is in the stage he’s starting to play the guitar. Ooops I slip! Ok fine. I went to church three times straight without absent b-because of Cris. He’s cute, he’s talented. And I’m still there for the Lord. Liar? I’m not a liar. I am still a Christian. It so happen that I don’t have any projects that Sunday. Ahhh! Fake?! I’m not a fake Christian; at least I go to church. Don’t shout! Ahhh! I said I’m not a fake Christian, I-I-I pray… every other day. At least I pray. No! I said I am a true Christian I read the Bible. I open it… Every time the Pastor is telling me to do so. Ok stop. Why do we need to argue? I guess I really don’t know what Christianity is? Ok! I go to church not because of Christ but because of Chris! I’m sleeping every time there is a sermon because I only love the music. I don’t read my Bible because I guess that’s boring. I sing… ―Jesus, I surrender I draw nearer, I fall down‖ but the truth I’m not sincere with that. But I guess my works will be credited in his name. I share my blessings to the poor, i give gifts every Sunday and I have a religion I guess that works…I don’t know. Right, Ephesians 2: 8-9 was right. It is not by works that I will be saved because Jesus is the only way. And I am so wrong I don’t even mind his sacrifices on the cross. I am supposed to be there because those are my sins. I forgot my purpose here on earth; you know what, he’s been good to me. But I always take him for granted. I’m doing things not for his glory but for my own. I should live for him because he died for me. I’m so ashamed now. But Lord you still forgave me. You’re so good. And you brought me to my knees. Now I’m talking and standing in front of you and I don’t care if you are going to laugh at me. I care to tell you things that I believe I must tell you. He won everything in me and he’s been waiting for you too… If you believe you have him, you may now shout what Carman once wrote ―Jesus is the Champion‖.

Declamation Piece: Vengeance is not ours it's God's Alms, alms, alms. Spare me a piece of bread. Spare me your mercy. I am a child so young, so thin, and so ragged. Why are you staring at me? With my eyes I cannot see but I know that you are all staring at me. Why are you whispering to one another? Why? Do you know my mother? Do you know my father? Did you know me five years ago? Yes, five years of bitterness have ed. I can still the vast happiness mother and I shared with each other. We were very happy indeed. Suddenly, five loud knocks were heard on the door and a deep silence ensued. Did the cruel Nippon’s discover our peaceful home? Mother ran to Father’s side pleading. ―Please, Luis, hide in the cellar, there in the cellar where they cannot find you,‖ I pulled my father’s arm but he did not move. It seemed as though his feet were glued to the floor. The door went ―bang‖ and before us five ugly beasts came barging in. ―Are you Captain Luis Santos?‖ roared the ugliest of them all. ―Yes,‖ said my father. ―You are under arrest,‖ said one of the beasts. They pulled father roughly away from us. Father was not given a chance to bid us goodbye. We followed them mile after mile. We were hungry and thirsty. We saw group of Japanese eating. Oh, how our mouths watered seeing the delicious fruits they were eating, Then suddenly, we heard a voice call, ―Consuelo. . . . Oscar. . . . Consuelo. . . . Oscar. . . . Consuelo. . . . Oscar. . . .‖ we ran towards the direction of the voice, but it was too late. We saw father hanging on a tree. . . . dead. Oh, it was terrible. He had been badly beaten before he died. . . . and I cried vengeance, vengeance, vengeance! Everything went black. The next thing I knew I was nursing my poor invalid mother. One day, we heard the church bell ringing ―ding-dong, ding-dong!‖ It was a sign for us to find a shelter in our hide-out, but I could not leave my invalid mother, I tried to show her the way to the hide-out. Suddenly, bombs started falling; airplanes were roaring overhead, canyons were firing from everywhere. ―Boom, boom, boom, boom!‖ Mother was hit. Her legs were shattered into pieces. I took her gently in my arms and cried, ―I’ll have vengeance, vengeance!‖ ―No, Oscar. Vengeance, it’s God’s,‖ said mother. But I cried out vengeance. I was like a pent-up volcano. ―Vengeance is mine not the Lord’s‖. ―No, Oscar. Vengeance is not ours, it’s God’s‖ these were the words from my mother before she died. Mother was dead and I was blind. Vengeance is not ours? To forgive is divine but vengeance is sweeter. That was five years ago, five years. . . . Alms, alms, alms. Spare me a piece of bread. Spare me your mercy. I am a child so young, so thin, and so ragged. Vengeance is not ours, it’s God’s. . . . It’s. . . . God’s. . It's...

Declamation Piece: Land of Bondage, Land of the Free Once upon a time, the tao owned a piece of land. It was all he owned. But he cherished it, for it gave him three things, having which, he was content: life, first of all, and liberty, and happiness. Then one day the Spaniard came and commanded him to pay tribute to the crown of Spain. The tao paid tribute. And he was silent — he was certain that he was still the master of his land. The Spaniard became rich. But with riches, evil entered into him and he came to the tao a second time. He read to the tao a formidable document saying: ―According to this decreto real, which unfortunately you cannot read, this that you have been paying me is not tribute but rent, for the land is not yours but mine.‖ The tao paid tribute and said nothing … He ceased to be a freeman. He became a serf. Still the tao held his peace. The rent went up and up. The tao starved. And this time at last he spoke. Not in words, but with that rustic instrument with which he cleared the land once his own — the bolo. He transformed it from an instrument of tillage to an instrument of death, and with it drove away the stranger. Then he returned to his field saying: ―Now indeed shall I again be master of this land, once my own, but stolen from me by the trickery of quicker wits than mine.‖ But the tao was wrong. For the land had another master. This time not a stranger, but his own countryman grown rich. The tao had a new name, kasama, which to us means partner, but which to the tao meant still a slave, for once more he suffered from his countrymen the same things he had suffered from the stranger: the rents, the usury, and all the rest of it. Yes, the tao returned to his field thinking that he was free. But he soon discovered that he was still a prisoner. His prison, a two-room shack, rent by every wind, without any comforts, except that three families have there the privilege to starve. The tao’s home has become his very prison. Its doors, if you can call them such, are wide open. It is a prison nonetheless. For the tao is bound to it, not with chains of steel, but with a stronger chain — his honor. To this day, the tao remains a slave, a prisoner of the usurer. No wonder, then that tao, being a slave, has acquired the habits of a slave. No wonder that after three centuries in chains, without freedom, without hope, he should lose the erect and fearless posture of the freeman, and become the bent, misshapen, indolent, vicious, pitiful thing that he is! Who dares accuse him, who dares rise up in judgement against this man, reduced to this sub-human level by three centuries of oppression. The tao does not come here tonight to be judged — but to judge! Hear then his accusation and his sentence: I indict the Spanish encomendero for inventing taxes impossible to bear. I indict the usurer for saddling me with debts impossible to pay. I indict the irresponsible radical leaders who undermine, with insidious eloquence, the confidence of my kind in our government. You accuse me of not ing my family. Free me from bondage, and I shall prove you false. You accuse me of ignorance. But I am ignorant because my master finds it profitable to keep me ignorant. Free me from bondage, and I shall prove you false. You accuse me of indolence. But I am indolent not because I have no will, but because I have no hope. Why should I labor, if all the fruits of my labor go to pay an unpayable debt. Free me from bondage, and I shall prove you false.

Give me land. Land to own. Land unbeholden to any tyrant. Land that will be free. Give me land for I am starving. Give me land that my children may not die. Sell it to me, sell it to me at a fair price, as one freeman sells to another and not as a usurer sells to a slave. I am poor, but I will pay it! I will work, work until I fall from weariness for my privilege, for my inalienable right to be free! BUT IF YOU WILL NOT GRANT ME THIS … If you will not grant me this last request, this ultimate demand, then build a wall around your home … build it high! … build it strong! Place a sentry on every parapet! … for I who have been silent these three hundred years will come in the night when you are feasting, with my cry and my bolo at your door. And may God have mercy on your soul!

Declamation Piece:

The Poor Man and the Rich Man (Der Arme und der Reiche) In olden times, when the Lord himself still used to walk about on this earth amongst men, it once happened that he was tired and overtaken by the darkness before he could reach an inn. Now there stood on the road before him two houses facing each other; the one large and beautiful, the other small and poor. The large one belonged to a rich man, and the small one to a poor man. Then the Lord thought, "I shall be no burden to the rich man, I will stay the night with him." When the rich man heard someone knocking at his door, he opened the window and asked the stranger what he wanted. The Lord answered, "I only ask for a night's lodging." Then the rich man looked at the traveller from head to foot, and as the Lord was wearing common clothes, and did not look like one who had much money in his pocket, he shook his head, and said, "No, I cannot take you in, my rooms are full of herbs and seeds; and if I were to lodge everyone who knocked at my door, I might very soon go begging myself. Go somewhere else for a lodging," and with this he shut down the window and left the Lord standing there. So the Lord turned his back on the rich man, and went across to the small house and knocked. He had hardly done so when the poor man opened the little door and bade the traveller come in. " the night with me, it is already dark," said he; "you cannot go any further tonight." This pleased the Lord, and he went in. The poor man's wife shook hands with him, and welcomed him, and said he was to make himself at home and put up with what they had got; they had not much to offer him, but what they had they would give him with all their hearts. Then she put the potatoes on the fire, and while they were boiling, she milked the goat, that they might have a little milk with them. When the cloth was laid, the Lord sat down with the man and his wife, and he enjoyed their coarse food, for there were happy faces at the table. When they had had supper and it was bed-time, the woman called her husband apart and said, "Listen, dear husband, let us make up a bed of straw for ourselves tonight, and then the poor traveller can sleep in our bed and have a good rest, for he has been walking the whole day through, and that makes one weary." "With all my heart," he answered, "I will go and offer it to him;" and he went to the stranger and invited him, if he had no objection, to sleep in their bed and rest his limbs properly. But the Lord was unwilling to take their bed from the two old folks; however, they would not be satisfied, till at length he did it and lay down in their bed, while they themselves lay on some straw on the ground. Next morning they got up before daybreak, and made as good a breakfast as they could for the guest. When the sun shone in through the little window, and the Lord had got up, he again ate with them, and then prepared to set out on his journey. But as he was standing at the door he turned round and said, "As you are so kind and good, you may wish three things for yourselves and I will grant them." Then the man said, "What else should I wish for but eternal happiness, and that we two, as long as we live, may be healthy and have every day our daily bread; for the third wish, I do not know what to have." And the Lord said to him, "Will you wish for a new house instead of this old one?" "Oh, yes," said the man; "if I can have that, too, I should like it very much."

And the Lord fulfilled his wish, and changed their old house into a new one, again gave them his blessing, and went on. The sun was high when the rich man got up and leaned out of his window and saw, on the opposite side of the way, a new clean-looking house with red tiles and bright windows where the old hut used to be. He was very much astonished, and called his wife and said to her, "Tell me, what can have happened? Last night there was a miserable little hut standing there, and today there is a beautiful new house. Run over and see how that has come to ." So his wife went and asked the poor man, and he said to her, "Yesterday evening a traveller came here and asked for a night's lodging, and this morning when he took leave of us he granted us three wishes — eternal happiness, health during this life and our daily bread as well, and besides this, a beautiful new house instead of our old hut." When the rich man's wife heard this, she ran back in haste and told her husband how it had happened. The man said, "I could tear myself to pieces! If I had but known that! That traveller came to our house too, and wanted to sleep here, and I sent him away." "Quick!" said his wife, "get on your horse. You can still catch the man up, and then you must ask to have three wishes granted to you." The rich man followed the good counsel and galloped away on his horse, and soon came up with the Lord. He spoke to him softly and pleasantly, and begged him not to take it amiss that he had not let him in directly; he was looking for the front-door key, and in the meantime the stranger had gone away, if he returned the same way he must come and stay with him. "Yes," said the Lord; "if I ever come back again, I will do so." Then the rich man asked if might not wish for three things too, as his neighbour had done? "Yes," said the Lord, he might, but it would not be to his advantage, and he had better not wish for anything; but the rich man thought that he could easily ask for something which would add to his happiness, if he only knew that it would be granted. So the Lord said to him, "Ride home, then, and three wishes which you shall form, shall be fulfilled." The rich man had now gained what he wanted, so he rode home, and began to consider what he should wish for. As he was thus thinking he let the bridle fall, and the horse began to caper about, so that he was continually disturbed in his meditations, and could not collect his thoughts at all. He patted its neck, and said, "Gently, Lisa," but the horse only began new tricks. Then at last he was angry, and cried quite impatiently, "I wish your neck was broken!" Directly he had said the words, down the horse fell on the ground, and there it lay dead and never moved again. And thus was his first wish fulfilled. As he was miserly by nature, he did not like to leave the harness lying there; so he cut it off, and put it on his back; and now he had to go on foot. "I have still two wishes left," said he, and comforted himself with that thought. And now as he was walking slowly through the sand, and the sun was burning hot at noon-day, he grew quite hot-tempered and angry. The saddle hurt his back, and he had not yet any idea what to wish for. "If I were to wish for all the riches and treasures in the world," said he to himself, "I should still to think of all kinds of other things later on, I know that, beforehand. But I will manage so that there is nothing at all left me to wish for afterwards." Then he sighed and said, "Ah, if I were but that Bavarian peasant, who likewise had three wishes granted to him, and knew quite well what to do, and in the first place wished for a great deal of beer, and in the second for as much beer as he was able to drink, and in the third for a barrel of beer into the bargain." Many a time he thought he had found it, but then it seemed to him to be, after all, too little. Then it came into his mind, what an easy life his wife had, for she stayed at home in a cool room and enjoyed herself. This really did vex him, and before he was aware, he said, "I just wish

she was sitting there on this saddle, and could not get off it, instead of my having to drag it along on my back." And as the last word was spoken, the saddle disappeared from his back, and he saw that his second wish had been fulfilled. Then he really did feel warm. He began to run and wanted to be quite alone in his own room at home, to think of something really large for his last wish. But when he arrived there and opened the parlour-door, he saw his wife sitting in the middle of the room on the saddle, crying and complaining, and quite unable to get off it. So he said, "Do bear it, and I will wish for all the riches on earth for you, only stay where you art." She, however, called him a fool, and said, "What good will all the riches on earth do me, if I am to sit on this saddle? You have wished me on it, so you must help me off." So whether he would or not, he was forced to let his third wish be that she should be quit of the saddle, and able to get off it, and at once the wish was fulfilled. So he got nothing by it but vexation, trouble, abuse, and the loss of his horse; but the poor people lived happily, quietly, and piously till their happy death.