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The Oath of the Green Lantern is spoken when charging his ring:

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power...
Green Lantern's Light! source

Why?

The Green Lantern reciting his oath whilst his ring is charging

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  • Tradition, mostly. It isn't (always) a hard requirement.
    – Politank-Z
    Commented Dec 15, 2015 at 0:20
  • There's also Rot Lop Fan's green lantern oath: In loudest din or hush profound, my ears catch evil's slightest sound. Let those who toll out evil's knell, beware my power:The F-Sharp Bell!
    – Elliott Frisch
    Commented Dec 15, 2015 at 0:21
  • In the "Avengers-Justice League" crossover epic, Kyle Rayner invokes "Hal's Oath" as decisive form of mantra-concentration, because recharging a Green Lantern ring off a Cosmic Cube was rattling his teeth.
    – Blaze
    Commented Jul 6, 2020 at 4:46

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According to the DC Wikia (emphasis mine):

All power rings need periodic recharging. The process is not instantaneous so many Green Lanterns recite an oath while the ring charges. The oath is not required to charge the ring, but is recited to reaffirm the person's commitment to the Green Lantern Corps, and to measure the time it takes the ring to charge. While many Green Lanterns create their own oath, the majority use the Corps' official oath as a sign of respect.

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  • In the Silver Age, Hal's oath was written by him, and other Corpsmen adopted his oath in respect to him specifically. In the modern era, that oath is the standard Corps oath, but there are still Corpsmen (like Rot Lop Fan above) who use their own. Tomar-Re's original Oath was that of Alan Scott, the Golden-Age GL, as a hat-tip to the original book.
    – VBartilucci
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 20:48
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The Green Lantern does not have to, except as a convention. There's nothing special about the words except for personal/Corps significance, as oaths differ between certain Lanterns. And in a previous continuity where the Guardians had left the universe for various reasons, the Corps had collapsed and mostly only Jordan, Gardner and Stewart had rings, Jordan recharged his ring while counting; the oath had lost significance for him (The Road Back).

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