Memorizing/Reciting poetry?

[Athomeread1ng]

I have grown up listening to my father recite poetry. My father chose poems that were about his heroes, favorite topics, and were associated with family members. Poetry has always brought great joy to him. (I, however, just can't seem to keep a poem memorized.)

I have heard people say that they were forced to learn a certain poem growing up so their children should have to learn it too. This certainly isn't joyfully motivated recitation, but it can still lead to positive outcomes. From my experience, this important part of the culture of poetry has been left out of schools. I wish poetry played a bigger part in education today. It can teach us so much.

There is a sense of pride associated with the memorization of a poem. It builds confidence and public speaking skills. It is a great way for those who love to read poetry but not to write it to be more connected to the art.

I think it is a great thing and I will keep working at it. It can be done!

[FNAWrite]

(I, however, just can't seem to keep a poem memorized.)

You have to practice - more. Some have to really work at it. What is the longest you have ever spent trying to memorize a poem? Did you have any of it memorized by the time you stopped trying? I have to imagine you had the first line or two. If you can learn one line, with more practice you can learn two, ad infinitum.

I do amateur theater. I will rehearse (memorize) my lines several times a day for a couple of months.

[p3rf3ctly_m3]

I struggle with the same thing. I recently started doing slam/spoken word poetry and you aren't allowed to bring anything up to the stage but yourself. im working on learning my poems little by little

[Athomeread1ng]

(I, however, just can't seem to keep a poem memorized.)

You have to practice - more. Some have to really work at it. What is the longest you have ever spent trying to memorize a poem? Did you have any of it memorized by the time you stopped trying? I have to imagine you had the first line or two. If you can learn one line, with more practice you can learn two, ad infinitum.

I do amateur theater. I will rehearse (memorize) my lines several times a day for a couple of months.

I have memorized several poems. It took a great deal of hard work to do it. The issue is that a few months down the line I wasn't able to remember them. There are just a few poems that I want to be able to recite for years to come. I guess I just need to make sure to recite them to myself more frequently.

[Loveabull]

Your Dad must be something special...I admire people who can memorize epic poems. Then again I think some of us have better memories than we believe. Take song lyrics...often poetry in themselves. Now think of how many songs you know word for word...Just a different kind of memorizing

[Fran]

I have quite a bank of poems I can recite at the drop of a hat & a couple of vodkas:
The Listeners by Walter de la Mare "Is there anybody there, said the traveller" ........ and I'm off
The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde ... "He did not wear his scarlet coat, For blood and wine are red ..."
A Soft Day, Thank God by Winifred M. Letts ... "A soft day, thank God! A wind from the south With a honey'd mouth" ...
and lots of W B Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, T S Eliot etc etc etc
I can even do a pretty good job on Said Hanrahan by the Australian poet John O'Brien
and, of course, lots of poems in the Irish language from schooldays.

I have always found it easy to remember poetry and song lyrics (unfortunately I can't sing) - if I like a poem I just have to repeat it a few times and it gets filed permanently in the old brain cells. Maybe it's something to do with being reared Catholic & memorizing childhood prayers.

I'd suggest starting off with short poems, 2-3 stanzas and remember it's easier if the poem rhymes .. after that it's just practice and more practice. Also, for me anyway, I need to say it aloud repeatedly for it to sink in .. alone in the car is a great place to practice reciting!

[Maud Fitch]

.....I can even do a pretty good job on Said Hanrahan by the Australian poet John O'Brien and, of course, lots of poems in the Irish language from schooldays.....

That's wonderful, Fran, and it brought back my memories of reciting poems by another Aussie poet Andrew Barton Paterson (or "Banjo" Paterson) at school, rollicking ones like "The Man From Snowy River", "Clancy Of The Overflow" and the almost-National Anthem "Waltzing Matilda".

Many of the first white settlers who made their homes in the colonies of New South Wales and Queensland were poor Irish Catholic families and I remember memorising and reciting "The Bush Christening" with the obligatory Irish accent. The priests travelled around on horseback, with 'parishes' that covered hundreds of square miles, visiting their parishioners in their homes and conducting impromptu christenings. A boisterous poem, drunks and children love it.

[Fran]

@Maud
I'm familiar with The Man from Snowy River but I wouldn't be able to recite it
When we were kids my Dad would respond with "We'll all be rooned, said Hanrahan" when neighbours complained about the weather or cattle prices, now we actually had neighbours called Hanrahan (quite a common name in my area of Ireland) and I always though he was quoting that neighbour. Imagine my surprise years later when I happened upon the poem in a book. I don't even know if my dad could recite the full poem or if he just had that line picked up from somewhere.
Ever hear of John Boyle O'Reilly? .... "For a dreamer lives forever, And a toiler dies in a day." He was transported to Western Australia in the 1800s.

[Maud Fitch]

.....I don't even know if my dad could recite the full poem or if he just had that line picked up from somewhere.

Ever hear of John Boyle O'Reilly? .... "For a dreamer lives forever, And a toiler dies in a day." He was transported to Western Australia in the 1800s.

Yep, my father and uncles also used to quote a line of poetry to emphasise a point. If something went missing or was lost they'd say "The colt from Old Regret had got away!" which is a line from Banjo Paterson's poem The Man From Snowy River:

"There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses - he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far
Had mustered at the homestead overnight,
For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,
And the stockhorse snuffs the battle with delight."

On the subject of John Boyle O'Reilly, no, I wasn't aware of the man so I checked out his Wikipedia entry and went WOW. What a colourful life, worthy of a biography dramatization or a movie! His prison photo shows a man with dark brooding good looks. Maybe his political bent and the fact that he escaped the Australian penal colony to live in America inhibited his rise to poetic stardom here .

[H0LD0Nthere]

I think some people just have a better memory for some things than others. Some find that verbal memorization just comes naturally. After they hear a poem they like, some of its lines are already sticking in their head. That is what I am like. And so are my kids.

On the other hand, I have to hear a song about 20 times before I know the tune well enough to sing it. And home-repair, car-repair, and IT-related things neither hold my attention well nor stick in my head. My husband loves that kind of thing, and I am certainly glad for it!

I really enjoy music, but I will never be a musician. Similarly, even if memorizin' doesn't come naturally to you, of course you can still enjoy poetry.

I agree that an important component has been left out of our education. "Real men read poetry." Look at the warrior cultures where reciting superlong poems about heroes and battles was a high-status thing to do. The Iliad, for example.

On a related note, although some people find it harder to memorize, it is definitely a mental skill that can be improved with practice. There are "oral cultures" where people rely on their memory much more than on writing stuff down. People in these cultures have a much better ability to memorize things quickly. For example, when I lived in Southeast Asia, people would routinely ask, "What is your address?" They would ask because they might want to visit some time. After one hearing, they would remember it! And they would expect me to remember their name and address after one hearing! Later they would find me and say, "Why didn't you come over?" And I'd be thinking, "Well, your face looks vaguely familiar ..."

In the same country, schoolwork often consisted of memorizing huge amounts of stuff that we would say is impossible. Having it accessible in memory was valued over actually understanding it. Of course there is an obvious downside to that, but I think we do lose a lot in our culture by, basically, never memorizing anything. I guess the exceptions are doctors and lawyers. But I digress.

I'm glad you had a such poetry-lovin' Dad. Poems can be used to play an important part in our families, our relationships, and our emotions. Read on!!!