There definitely was a culture of memorization in the past. I too was made to memorize poetry at school, and incentivized with competitions, both within the school and some inter-school competitions - and in my case it was Latin and Greek poetry as well as English, because I had the good fortune to study those languages in school. I can still remember most of it. And I grew up in a house where quoting poetry was just part of the normal discourse: my father knew a lot of poetry, and would insert it into the conversation wherever it seemed relevant. In my daughter's school there is nothing like that.
But that said, I wonder if the problem isn't about the practice of memorization, but WHAT is being memorized. I took my daughter to a concert by one of her favorite singers (Renee Rapp), and she was literally able to shout out every lyric to every song being played. And it isn't just that singer - she has hundreds, probably thousands of lines to songs in her head, and so do many of her friends. Obviously the music makes it easier to remember, but with some rap music it is certainly more the words than the accompaniment that sticks in her memory, and she quotes and recognizes apposite song-lines the whole time.
But that is all contemporary songs of variable quality: she studied Romeo and Juliet in detail at school last year, but I doubt she could quote a single line from it (except possibly "Wherefore art thou Romeo?", which she's come across in other contexts), and there seems to be no practice in the school of encouraging the students to do so. There seems to be almost an embarrassment about treating classic literature to students in school as something which they could remember and draw from with the same enthusiasm as they do their favorite rap artists.
There's a national contest of poetry recitation for high school students, dating back to Dana Gioia's days as head of the NEA: https://poetryoutloud.org/
I was headed to the comments to mention Poetry Out Loud--my brief time competing in it introduced me to the lovely work of Gerard Manely Hopkins, and I still have "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" memorized! Thank you for bringing it up.
I am tasked with memorizing immense amounts of text as an actor. It is so simple. Memorize the first phrase. Speak it over and over again until you have it. Then add the second phrase to it. Speak the first two phrases over until you have them together. Then add the next phrase. Same procedure - always speaking the phrases together in order. Repeat. Patience is helpful. By the time you have put the whole thing to memory you will have said it many, many times. Enough times to give you a good chance of understanding what you’re talking about. Then you can use the words to do something with them, and when you do that you will not forget them.
Supporting what Neil says here - but also with an additional suggestion (which only works for clean-shaven men ...). What I did for years was put up a poem next to my shaving mirror, and used Neil's exact method every day while shaving, adding one or two extra lines every day.
That way you can memorize a few hundred lines a year just using time that otherwise would be a mental down-time.
I memorized a lot of poetry in my distant youth, but my recent attempts at Tennyson's "Ulysses" failed. I always lose a phrase or two. I think the problem is that I've been too lazy, or too arthritic, to write it out by hand multiple times, which is an incredibly effective way to learn something. So do that, in addition to the hints above.
Great advice already. I used to print out poems and put them on the back of the bathroom door.
Another tip is to get an audiobook of some classic verse. After hearing a professional read a poem, I often found it somehow easier to memorise. Also you can replay it many times and while you're out walking, etc.
The section about Georges Simenon is how I feel about Alan Furst. His WW2 espionage novels capture so much of the romance and terror of life in Eastern Europe in so few words.
Sci fi writer(s) James SA Corey does the same in the Expanse series. I remember one passage communicating a lot about class and wealth merely be mentioning that a desk in a space station was made of “real wood.”
I had a mischievous, ancient, legendary 12th grade American history teacher who opened the course by saying that whoever could recite to her the Preamble to the Constitution would get a A in the class. A friend and I took the challenge and recited it back and forth to each other until we were sure. We then recited to our teacher who said,"Excellent. Now you have democracy for life. All you have to do is get As on your exams and you will have an A for the class!" She also offered to give As to any girl who could convince her parents to register as Democrats.
I remain in awe of Other Men’s Flowers, where Wavell (“a simple soldier”), bored in the Abyssinian campaign of WW2, puts down all the poetry he can remember…
Embarrassingly, the only poem I can reliably remember was set as a punishment by a prefect at school - memorise the work by the next morning. Luckily he’d chosen a cracker: Ozymandias. Short, vivid, semi-rhyming, and with a great gag at the end.
If anyone is wanting to start memorising poetry it’s an excellent one to pick.
Steiner is such a tease to me. Some of the essays are so outstanding but the books, as a whole, always seem a bit of a let down (thinking of the Absolute, Tragedy, Real Prences, etc. although I haven't read Babel or the Russian novelists book). The only work that I truly think is terrific from start to finish is Bluebeard. Maybe the full length monograph is not his genre? Maybe his lectures series don't always present the extended narrative they seek? Maybe his style is too circuitous? Suffice to say, no critic simultaneously excites and disappoints me as much.
the art of memorising poetry (and stuff) has always fascinated me. have you tried some simple memory techniques? it's a game changer. the memory palace and the link method do wonders.
Great idea! It would be great if you could share the texts you are planning to memorise each day, with your readers can make it a daily ritual as well.
When I was a ten years boy in school we were supposed to learn by heart full chapters from the Bible. Memorizing is an essential part to put stakes in classifying history. The personal computer is based on the human brain, we have logic and memory, both are needed. We are simply unaware how many subconscious considerations our brain makes by using memories that are stored inside. So, yes memory is vital.
Some of the old interviews with Steiner you can find on YouTube are truly impressive. Cheers to memorizing poetry!
There definitely was a culture of memorization in the past. I too was made to memorize poetry at school, and incentivized with competitions, both within the school and some inter-school competitions - and in my case it was Latin and Greek poetry as well as English, because I had the good fortune to study those languages in school. I can still remember most of it. And I grew up in a house where quoting poetry was just part of the normal discourse: my father knew a lot of poetry, and would insert it into the conversation wherever it seemed relevant. In my daughter's school there is nothing like that.
But that said, I wonder if the problem isn't about the practice of memorization, but WHAT is being memorized. I took my daughter to a concert by one of her favorite singers (Renee Rapp), and she was literally able to shout out every lyric to every song being played. And it isn't just that singer - she has hundreds, probably thousands of lines to songs in her head, and so do many of her friends. Obviously the music makes it easier to remember, but with some rap music it is certainly more the words than the accompaniment that sticks in her memory, and she quotes and recognizes apposite song-lines the whole time.
But that is all contemporary songs of variable quality: she studied Romeo and Juliet in detail at school last year, but I doubt she could quote a single line from it (except possibly "Wherefore art thou Romeo?", which she's come across in other contexts), and there seems to be no practice in the school of encouraging the students to do so. There seems to be almost an embarrassment about treating classic literature to students in school as something which they could remember and draw from with the same enthusiasm as they do their favorite rap artists.
yes I agree with this, I think that it can only happen through education really
There's a national contest of poetry recitation for high school students, dating back to Dana Gioia's days as head of the NEA: https://poetryoutloud.org/
An artifact from my mother-in-law's last days: https://www.instagram.com/p/DMdesfFS7_XWpL1AZTRJDXzaVjrH1E2oxjIfIo0/
Heartbeats: Everyday Life and the Memorized Poem by Catherine Robson is about this shift https://amzn.to/4aJt73Z
I love that scheme that Dana set up, I wish there was more of it in schools
I was headed to the comments to mention Poetry Out Loud--my brief time competing in it introduced me to the lovely work of Gerard Manely Hopkins, and I still have "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" memorized! Thank you for bringing it up.
I would love to read some reliable methods for memorizing verse as an adult, if anyone care to share…
I am tasked with memorizing immense amounts of text as an actor. It is so simple. Memorize the first phrase. Speak it over and over again until you have it. Then add the second phrase to it. Speak the first two phrases over until you have them together. Then add the next phrase. Same procedure - always speaking the phrases together in order. Repeat. Patience is helpful. By the time you have put the whole thing to memory you will have said it many, many times. Enough times to give you a good chance of understanding what you’re talking about. Then you can use the words to do something with them, and when you do that you will not forget them.
Supporting what Neil says here - but also with an additional suggestion (which only works for clean-shaven men ...). What I did for years was put up a poem next to my shaving mirror, and used Neil's exact method every day while shaving, adding one or two extra lines every day.
That way you can memorize a few hundred lines a year just using time that otherwise would be a mental down-time.
Thank you, Neil!
I memorized a lot of poetry in my distant youth, but my recent attempts at Tennyson's "Ulysses" failed. I always lose a phrase or two. I think the problem is that I've been too lazy, or too arthritic, to write it out by hand multiple times, which is an incredibly effective way to learn something. So do that, in addition to the hints above.
Great advice already. I used to print out poems and put them on the back of the bathroom door.
Another tip is to get an audiobook of some classic verse. After hearing a professional read a poem, I often found it somehow easier to memorise. Also you can replay it many times and while you're out walking, etc.
What a force he was, and remains, since we can always read him. I couldn’t be writing my book without Steiner’s Real Presences.
Force is exactly right!
Definitely worth memorizing scripture and lovely spiritual passages too. And of course, many of them are also poetry!
The section about Georges Simenon is how I feel about Alan Furst. His WW2 espionage novels capture so much of the romance and terror of life in Eastern Europe in so few words.
Sci fi writer(s) James SA Corey does the same in the Expanse series. I remember one passage communicating a lot about class and wealth merely be mentioning that a desk in a space station was made of “real wood.”
I had a mischievous, ancient, legendary 12th grade American history teacher who opened the course by saying that whoever could recite to her the Preamble to the Constitution would get a A in the class. A friend and I took the challenge and recited it back and forth to each other until we were sure. We then recited to our teacher who said,"Excellent. Now you have democracy for life. All you have to do is get As on your exams and you will have an A for the class!" She also offered to give As to any girl who could convince her parents to register as Democrats.
Please mention this wonderful organisation, Poetry by Heart, through which thousands of British school children hugely enjoy learning poetry by heart.
https://poetrybyheart.org.uk/
I remain in awe of Other Men’s Flowers, where Wavell (“a simple soldier”), bored in the Abyssinian campaign of WW2, puts down all the poetry he can remember…
Embarrassingly, the only poem I can reliably remember was set as a punishment by a prefect at school - memorise the work by the next morning. Luckily he’d chosen a cracker: Ozymandias. Short, vivid, semi-rhyming, and with a great gag at the end.
If anyone is wanting to start memorising poetry it’s an excellent one to pick.
The first trick to memorizing poetry is believing that you can. I’ve tried to be as encouraging as I can be with tips.
https://zinagomezliss.substack.com/p/how-to-memorize-poetry-for-people?utm_source=publication-search
And I have contributed to @Tara Penry’s list of poems here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapenry/p/memorizing-poems?r=fjyz7&utm_medium=ios
Substack has some really inspirational people reciting poetry. My friend @Seth Wieck has videos of himself driving around Texas reciting poems.
Steiner is such a tease to me. Some of the essays are so outstanding but the books, as a whole, always seem a bit of a let down (thinking of the Absolute, Tragedy, Real Prences, etc. although I haven't read Babel or the Russian novelists book). The only work that I truly think is terrific from start to finish is Bluebeard. Maybe the full length monograph is not his genre? Maybe his lectures series don't always present the extended narrative they seek? Maybe his style is too circuitous? Suffice to say, no critic simultaneously excites and disappoints me as much.
Great little essay on this subject by Dan Hitchens: https://firstthings.com/learning-by-heart/
the art of memorising poetry (and stuff) has always fascinated me. have you tried some simple memory techniques? it's a game changer. the memory palace and the link method do wonders.
Great idea! It would be great if you could share the texts you are planning to memorise each day, with your readers can make it a daily ritual as well.
When I was a ten years boy in school we were supposed to learn by heart full chapters from the Bible. Memorizing is an essential part to put stakes in classifying history. The personal computer is based on the human brain, we have logic and memory, both are needed. We are simply unaware how many subconscious considerations our brain makes by using memories that are stored inside. So, yes memory is vital.