Polite Discourse with the Unspeakable Part II

I claim no poetic merit for these verses which I posted nearly a year ago, but am re-posting them only as a tailpiece to my last post, and because St Nicholas's heart, (and fist) were in the right place.


Saint Nicholas was my kind of Saint,
If sometimes short of temper.
Though pacifism was not his bent;
He was fidelis semper.

When Arius denied his Lord's
Divinity, Nick felt sore;
Decided acts speak more than words,
Felled Arius to the floor.


His kind of knock-down plagologue*
Is now not to our taste.
We value courteous dialogue
Above such wordless haste.


And yet there is a time, one feels
To strike and not to speak.
When Reason with Unreason deals,
It's reason which is weak.


For who can mould a brain of mud
With philosophic lore?
Better to thump the stupid crud.
His place is on the floor.



Note: Plagologue = arguing or reasoning with blows. This word does not appear in any dictionary. It is my own coinage, being derived from Latin 'plagus' = a blow, 'plagosus' = full of blows, violent, cognate with Greek 'plegein = to beat, and logos = reason.