In his 1928 collection of poems, Odd Jobs, Ernest ‘Kodak’ O’Ferrall caricatures recitation as an onerous entertainment that has passed its use by date:
Way out in the suburbs howls the wild Reciter,Storming like a general, bragging like a blighter;He would shame hyenas lurking in their densAs he roars at peaceful folk whose joy is keeping hens.
…Tie his hands and gag him as he rolls hi ...
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