This is a great thread - thanks, Andrew!
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Beethoven once supposedly chided a musician for playing one of his works "from memory," arguing that he should be looking at the score because he might see something new in it. Sounds like good advice to me.
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Let's not forget that Beethoven went deaf. If he didn't see it, he couldn't "hear" it.
I had the benefit of a slightly more "progressive" education, in probably a slightly larger Illinois town than Andrew (Evanston).
We never had to learn anything by heart, unless we were drama students (which I was, but that's another matter altogether). While I'm sure that my parents thought that this was a good thing, I'm not sure if I wouldn't have benefited from having to commit some poetry to memory. Certainly, I'm sure my skills in writing metrical poetry have suffered from this hole in my education.
Since I don't have any opportunity to read my poetry in any public forums, I haven't
needed to memorize any of my poems. However, I do think that my theatrical training has made me do this to some extent anyway - instinctively. It seems to me that the process of learning a poem of your own by heart would also become another way to edit and improve your poetry. It also seems to me that the process of learning any other person's work improves your own understanding and involvement in the work itself. If I apply this to plays, for instance, I certainly couldn't ever act a part that I didn't memorize my lines for. The better I know my lines, the better I can feel those lines, adjust my voice to invoke the type of expression and emotion that I believe the author wanted to have portrayed. Does this make sense?
So, that's my take on this.
Thanks for... um... rope-ing me into this forum!
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Just one person's opinion.
Davida Chazan