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  #1  
Unread 06-09-2010, 07:18 AM
Don Jones's Avatar
Don Jones Don Jones is offline
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Default Memorize, memorize, memorize!!!

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Last edited by Don Jones; 10-18-2010 at 06:10 PM.
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Unread 06-09-2010, 09:02 AM
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Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
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Hi Don,

I like students to memorize poems but fifty lines is quite a task, and could be off-putting and counter-productive. A poem that's not too daunting to learn, perhaps 'The Road Not Taken' or something similar, is a good place to start.
Isn't it preferable to be able to recite several poems, than fifty lines of a long poem such as 'In Praise of Limestone'?
I memorized Leigh Hunt's 'Abou Ben Adhem and the Angel' for homework when I was twelve, and can still recite it - and still love it!

Teachers have a huge responsibility and many of them have turned children off poetry for life, which is totally unforgiveable and to be avoided at all costs. The age of the students is a major consideration when choosing the style, and length, of a poem for them to learn; 'Less is More' is worth bearing in mind IMO (though giving them the choice would probably result in just a limerick!).
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Unread 06-09-2010, 01:45 PM
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Don Jones Don Jones is offline
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Last edited by Don Jones; 10-18-2010 at 06:09 PM.
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  #4  
Unread 06-09-2010, 02:30 PM
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Wintaka Wintaka is offline
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In case anyone is unfamiliar with the story:

Late in life, Pablo Neruda was giving a performance in a huge soccer stadium, packed with fans. Members of the audience shouted out a request for a poem from his earliest days. Neruda apologized, explaining that his memory was fading and that it had been such a long time since he had performed that particular piece. Not a problem. The crowd, in unison, rose up and recited it to him!

Obviously, in cultures that support professional poets the idea of reading from a book is just as unthinkable as stage or movie actors reading from scripts. In this case, cause and effect are one; speaking both generally and crossculturally, performances fill concert halls and stadiums, readings fill telephone booths.

-o-
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Unread 06-16-2010, 11:35 AM
David Mason David Mason is offline
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My kids do a minimum of 100 lines per class. It ain't hard at all. They can recite them in increments, and sometimes I have them re-recite them at the end of it all so the lines will be lodged in their heads.

When I teach Romantic poets I begin the oral exam by asking each student to recite and explicate at least 25 lines from memory.
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Unread 06-16-2010, 12:09 PM
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John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
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I can recite bloody great wodges of Shakespeare. We did indeed have to memorise some of the speeches. And how many Brits of my age can recite 'Slowly, silently, now the moon... Oh, and I can do quite a bit of Tam o'Shanter. It's all those Burns Suppers.

Tennyson is a good guy to memorise. Kipling - lots of bits of Kipling

Bits of Wendy Cope are memorable. Jesus, of his goodness and his grace, Jesus found me a parking space. On the other hand I can't remember much Ted Hughes and as the years go by I hope I shall achieve total forgetfulness.

I can remember fair bits of Sam Gwynn. It's one of the reasons he's my favourite American poet living.
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Unread 06-16-2010, 05:52 PM
Jim Burrows Jim Burrows is offline
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I had three experiences of having to recite poetry back in olden times.

In high school, my teacher asked us to memorize and recite, to her alone, "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...". I did it, and felt stupid, but some of it stuck with me (except I found later that I had remembered the second line as "Creeps past this petty pace from day to day..."). I guess it seemed so strange at the time I didn't expect it to make sense.

The second time, taking an Intro. to Poetry class in college, we were asked to stand before the class and recite a small number of lines. I remember two recitations besides my own: one was a hammy theater student who recited part of "The Witch of Coos", playing mother and son in different voices, and nailed it. The second was an otherwise confident and perfectly intelligent student athlete who was visibly nervous and humiliated by the experience. With this method, there is a real danger of turning students off to poetry for good. To some students, it can seem cruel.

The third time, in grad. school, a professor asked us to recite poetry, but allowed us to type it into his computer, if we so chose. We could also recite it to him, or to the class. What's wrong with this method? People, including students, love poetry in different ways. Some of us don't agree that a poem doesn't really live until it's spoken aloud. If that's the case, I've missed out on many of the poems I love the most.
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Unread 06-17-2010, 07:09 AM
Kevin Corbett Kevin Corbett is offline
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I had a professor who did this. I didn't even really have to do anything, since you could use any poem and at that time I had Prufrock constantly ringing in my ears. Heck, I can think of a few times in college when I was bored during class and tried seeing how much of "To His Coy Mistress" I could transcribe from memory, which was actually nearly all of it (though that was a few years ago, i.e. I'm a bit rusty). The only English poem I ever intentionally memorized was "The Raven" for my 6th grade public speaking project (I also had to memorize LaFontaine's "The Fox and the Crow" in French, but I know I forget big chunks of it when I was reciting it in class, so that's more of a failed attempt than an actual memorization). Otherwise, I just have a lot of them I've read so many times I couldn't help but know them by heart.
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Unread 06-19-2010, 11:11 AM
E. Shaun Russell E. Shaun Russell is offline
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Hmmm...

In theory, I think it's a great idea. In practice though, I have a feeling it may have the same effect in some that Jayne describes. First of all, some people (I daresay most people) will never have an interest in poetry, no matter how you try to sell it to them. It's probably the most cerebral of the arts, and there's really not a lot of escapist value in poetry like there often is in other arts.

For those who could derive value from poetry, rote memorization doesn't strike me as a positive route for a number of reasons. I don't believe that knowing a poem by heart makes one a better poet, or even a better appreciator of poetry. Some people just aren't good at memorizing things. I'm one of them. My wife can prattle off lyrics or lines of songs / movies / plays after hearing them once or twice. There are scant few songs I know all the lyrics of (and I'm big into music), relatively few movie lines I can quote (and I've seen countless movies), and when it comes to poetry...well, I think I have ONE of my own poems perfectly memorized, and a small handful of others that I can partially recite. Does that mean I have less of an understanding or appreciation of those poems? No, I don't think so. It just means that my mind isn't good at memorization. I'm very bad at repeating things back verbatim, but I can always convey the gist.

Ultimately, I agree with Jim's assessment that it can be downright cruel to force kids to memorize a poem to read aloud. Honestly, if someone is going to have an interest in poetry, the best way to nurture that interest is by getting that person to think about tropes and how the meanings are packed into the form...and how the form and meaning support each other. Memorization can be a helpful tool (for some) to bring this end forward, but it should never be imposed.
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  #10  
Unread 06-19-2010, 11:21 AM
David Mason David Mason is offline
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If you create a good social atmosphere in class, most kids have no trouble with it at all. In extreme cases you can let the kid recite in your office. But one key is this: you let the student choose (within some limits) what he or she would like to memorize. He or she should own the poem(s) and not feel obligated to love only what the professor loves.
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