[Maryann Corbett]

There's memorization, and there's effective oral delivery, and there's the undeniable usefulness of the first for the second. (Tom Clancy's delivery of "O'Driscoll" ("The Hosts of the Air") is the canonical performance as far as I'm concerned, and I have an old LP of him doing it live in concert.) But this thread is about memorization, not delivery.

Having poems by heart means that you have access to at least some poems always, no matter what the circumstances. It makes it easier to call up examples to demonstrate points in teaching or critique. It provides comfort, or food for thought, when you need it. Since nearly all of what I have by heart is metrical it's of a piece with the music I have by heart, a part of the ongoing rhythm of living. I wish I found it easier to commit free verse to memory, because I'd be richer for it.

So I'd say the best reason to memorize is our own private pleasure. It seems to me that teachers could encourage memorization without mixing it up with recitation, since there are some students who are defeated by even private recitation in the teacher's office.

Oral delivery of poems is important too--it's the best developer of the ear that really teaches meter--but I think we err if we mix it up with memorization. The two are different sources of wealth.