Sentence:  Then he <WSD>commenced</WSD> to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To begin, start.