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I found this site in an attempt to provide justification as to why I am requiring my seniors to memorize the Prologue to the CT. I could find no correlation between the Common Core Standards and memorizing the prologue. I know it has great value, but cannot give muckity-mucks “official” reasons why I am teaching this. I find that sad. Thanks for this post – I will be using it.
Reply[…] one in ways that I think even the best non-fiction is incapable of doing. (I also strongly advocate reading and memorizing some poetry from time to […]
Reply[…] for example, I like to memorize poems. When I am trying to memorize a new poem, I read it through a few times, set it aside, and a little […]
Reply[…] challenge you to memorize a poem sometime, if you haven’t already. Here are some reasons you should. And if you have favorites you know by heart, please share them in the comments. Photo by Angela […]
Reply[…] challenge you to memorize a poem sometime, if you haven’t already. Here are some reasons you should. And if you have favorites you know by heart, please share them in the […]
ReplyGinni – Thanks for commenting. I’m going to have to go search for that video! – Jeff
ReplyI’m on the other side of the continent from the late Sen. Byrd and I don’t follow politics really closely anyway, but I do have a heart for species other than our own. When the Mike Vick dog fighting story broke, I watched the Youtube videos of Sen. Byrd’s very impasssioned 25 minute speech before the Senate in his state of West Virginia. With his diction and white hair flying everywhere, he looked and sounded to me like an Old Testament prophet. I didn’t know he memorized poetry until I read this article. No wonder he was so powerful in that speech (“Barbarity! Barbarity!”). It should be included in the books and audio/digital collections of great American speeches.
Reply[…] picked—it’s one I’ve had memorized for years, and it seems to fit the bill. (Be sure to read “7 Reasons to Memorize Some Poetry” on Jeff Cobb’s Mission to Learn blog, if you haven’t […]
ReplySeth – I am so glad you found the post of value. Thanks for commenting and sharing you thoughts. Also, you have inspired me to revisit Jabberwocky. I had it memorized once upon a time, but it has since faded. It is a great poem and great fun to boot! – Jeff
ReplyJeff, what a great post.
Another wonder of the Internet is that what you post stays around a good long while. So, here it is well over a year since you published this piece and my evening and soul are the richer for it. Thank you.
I loved reading the poems you included as much as your prose. It was a great fabric you spun above.
I have memorized poetry my whole life long, though not as much as some and certainly not as much as Senator Byrd has demonstrated.
The first piece I put to memory was The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll and the reason was that my father had memorized it. I loved the sound of the words and the crazy look of glee on his face when he brought them to life. The opening stanza:
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The entire poem is here: https://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html
It was my father’s spirit, I think, inspired me. His was infectious and I wanted it. Like you said, his presence is anchored in that poem for me… all that is good about him from a 2-yr-old’s perspective, and that is admirable indeed.
Your post and Celisa’s recitation at https://www.missiontolearn.com/2011/05/how-language-is-lost/ have found me at the ripe time, ready to revivify the magic that poetry brings when it becomes part of one’s daily life. Thanks so much for the gift.
ReplyEric – Thanks for commenting. I haiku a day for a year and a half is certainly very impressive! And I agree completely that poetry helps you make sense out of your own experiences. Thanks for adding that point. – Jeff
ReplyGreat post, Jeff. I’d add one more idea. Poetry helps you make sense out of your own experiences. I started writing a haiku every day a year and a half ago, drawing on my own experiences as an employee, boss, father, husband and human being as my source material. Check out https://cellphonehaiku.blogspot.com/ if you’re interested. The exercise has helped me focus on the meaning behind things and enriched my understanding of my place in all of these relationships.
ReplyKevin – Here, here! I’ll accept the title of “nerd” and “odd, tweedy relic” – which is a nice poetic turn of phrase, by the way! I’m all for everything the Internet brings with it (well, mostly), but I think there will always be good reason to revisit and learn from the best of what has come before.
Celisa – That Ciardi poem is a true gem. I need to add it to my list! (Actually, maybe I had it memorized once upon a time, but I can no longer remember 😉 )
Jeff
ReplyHi Jeff, This is a wonderfully nerdy post. As we hear more from neuroscientists who tell us that, just as tools always shaped our species’ minds, and the Internet today is changing the way we think, I wonder if as a society we face a long mult-generational tumble into “Idiocracy.” The few of us who keep and refer back to our old English Lit readers from college classes 25 years ago (to read, sadly not to memorize) will be seen as odd, tweedy relics more worthy of chuckling at than of exercising some admirable trait, if we’re not already. Yet I have no idea how I could write well, or even adequately, without continuing to expose myself to beautiful writing far better than what I could ever compose.
ReplyI was already a firm believer in the power of memorizing poetry, but I appreciated your enumeration of the benefits, Jeff.
Tied to your point 6 above, poems can teach us in a profound ways. Below is the opening stanza of John Ciardi’s “In Place of a Curse.” I love the poem’s imagination and humor–and its dead-serious exhortation to tackle life head on. I’ve recited this poem to myself at times to build up the strength or courage or whatever it takes to get back up after having been slugged, even if no harder than anyone else.
At the next vacancy for God, if I am elected,
I shall forgive last the delicately wounded who,
having been slugged no harder than anyone else,
never got up again, neither to fight back,
nor to finger their jaws in painful admiration.