Peroration
The closing section of a speech, written to summarise and to move.
In classical rhetoric the peroratio was the final part of an oration, following the argument proper. Cicero and Quintilian assigned it two jobs: recapitulation (reminding the audience of the case) and amplification (raising the emotional temperature so the audience leaves committed rather than merely convinced).
Almost every famous speech quotation comes from a peroration. This is not an accident. The closing section is where speakers permit themselves repetition, tricolon, and rising cadence — precisely the devices that make a passage detachable and memorable.
Writers studying speeches should therefore read perorations for craft and bodies of speeches for content. Quoting only the peroration of a policy address gives an accurate picture of the speaker's feeling and a misleading picture of their reasoning.
Common mistake: writing a peroration that introduces new material. The classical rule is firm — the close consolidates what has been argued; a new claim in the final paragraph leaves an audience puzzled at the exact moment they should be persuaded.
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets.”
Keep reading the glossary
A formal public speech — the original setting for many of the most-quoted lines in history.
The professional craft of placing borrowed lines inside a speech for authority, relief, or transition.
The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses.
A rhetorical structure of three parallel clauses, phrases, or words — the most persuasive number in English.