I took a Shakespeare class in college where part of the tests was to memorize and recite a certain number of lines from a play (I think it was 50?). I enjoyed it, and now I'll have Hamlet's soliloquies forever rattling around in my head.
I think Peter O’Toole had them all by heart (I haven’t got them all… yet). All the more impressive given, erm, how much he, erm, enjoyed a lemonade or two.
I have memorised about a dozen of the sonnets so far. I tend to come back to them between memorising other poets. What I have noticed is that Shakespeare's sonnets seem so much easier to recall after a gap of time. I don't trip up with his lines as I do with Donne, Keats or Tennyson. When I listen to recordings of sonnets I have by heart, they often feel a little ponderous compared to how I sense those that live on the tongue. There is always a sense of the stage in the sonnets, at least for me.
I took a Shakespeare class in college where part of the tests was to memorize and recite a certain number of lines from a play (I think it was 50?). I enjoyed it, and now I'll have Hamlet's soliloquies forever rattling around in my head.
that's great, such good stuff to have memorised
That's nothing. I'm memorizing a Milton sonnet or two. He's tougher, I think.
I want to memorise 'When I Consider How My Light Is Spent'
Ha! That's the one I'm working on now!
Though I might start with ' How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth' which I prefer
That will be next.
I think Peter O’Toole had them all by heart (I haven’t got them all… yet). All the more impressive given, erm, how much he, erm, enjoyed a lemonade or two.
I have memorised about a dozen of the sonnets so far. I tend to come back to them between memorising other poets. What I have noticed is that Shakespeare's sonnets seem so much easier to recall after a gap of time. I don't trip up with his lines as I do with Donne, Keats or Tennyson. When I listen to recordings of sonnets I have by heart, they often feel a little ponderous compared to how I sense those that live on the tongue. There is always a sense of the stage in the sonnets, at least for me.
I memorized a sonnet 45 years ago. It's the only one i know. "When in disgrace with fortune..." etc. What's the next best one to memorize?