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Sophie Hammond's avatar

Ooooh, lovely. Do you do requests? Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 for me, please. I've been struggling to learn it since the summer and have only managed the first quatrain so far!

Nigel de la Rue's avatar

Apropos James M’s post yesterday quoting John Carey on learning by heart, Sonnet 29 is a work of art I carry with me and can relish at any time — especially comforting when I’m in disgrace!

Sophie Hammond's avatar

In that case, Nigel, I shall give it another go. Just made a recording of it on my phone and will listen on my dog walk. In sixth form, I memorised a poem a week, roughly, doing my English A-level. Now I can't even seem to manage one a year!

Nigel de la Rue's avatar

Keep trying, Sophie! I am 70 and studying for an English Literature degree; although memorising is not a requirement it is something I like to do from time to time. In my opinion the better I can feel a poem in my gut, the easier it is to retain in my head.

Dirk Hohnstraeter's avatar

A beautiful idea!

Ros's avatar

Thank you for all your posts

Adrian Neibauer's avatar

Excellent! I love this poem. Thanks for starting this experiment!

If you are interested in listening to some incredible reciations by high school students, I share Poetry Out Loud as exemplars for my students.

https://poetryoutloud.org/

Nigel de la Rue's avatar

Thank you Henry — a great idea; and interesting to compare with how I would recite it myself.