Not only do I agree with you that the speech is utter bloviation, but I think it's absolutely his best shot at romantic bloviating. I think it cost him substantial mental effort & I'm sure he considered himself irresistible giving it. After all, he spent maybe five whole minutes without mentioning his horse, or gig, or even saying one d----d!

Sadly for him, though, I don't think Catherine found it romantic. Not only was she utterly unaware of his designs, but his delivery was so awkward that the whole speech raised no suspicions of his affections. My parenthetical note in my last post was meant to be ironic--maybe I should leave irony to Miss Austen.