Member-only story
Why You Should Be Memorizing Poetry
Poetry Memorization is a Disappearing Skill
Memorization and recitation of poetry were once standard parts of children’s education. Over the past century though, poetry has been steadily disappearing from the classroom curriculum. Although it varies from school to school, and country to country, students are generally reading less poetry and rarely being asked to memorize or recite it.
I went to school in the nineties and the very early 2000s, and as far as I can remember, I only ever had to memorize one poem throughout my entire education. I spoke with my parents, who grew up in the sixties, and they remembered a similar lack of poetry. In contrast, for my grandparents’ generation, memorizing poetry was a regular part of their education.
My family’s experiences mirror the broader trend throughout the United States — and most of the world — during the 20th century: the de-emphasis of poetry in education. These days, most of us have grown up without ever really learning to memorize poetry in school. As a consequence, few of us even consider memorizing poetry as adults.
My Decision to Memorize Poetry
I’ve been a fan of poetry for most of my adult life, but I’m normally a less-than-ideal reader. I have a bad habit of reading through books of poetry quickly, treating them as if they are prose. I read each poem once, rarely stopping to think about the meaning or struggle with a difficult line.
This year I decided to make a conscious effort to work through more difficult books and rush my reading less. (I’ve written more about this experience here). As part of that effort, I decided to approach poetry more carefully as well. Instead of sweeping through entire collections of poetry in a day, I’d examine a single poem at a time, pausing to think about the meaning of each line, and consulting outside explanations when I felt like something was going over my head.
Without even trying, I began to memorize short snippets of poems, just from spending so much time concentrating on them. I was only remembering a few words in a row, not even entire lines, but it inspired me to try memorizing longer sections, and eventually entire poems.
