"I believe it was Robert Pinsky (a superb memorizer of poetry) who explained that the only way to know something is 'by heart'. If you can hold a poem or a song in your heart, it is truly yours. Imagine Nadezda Mandelstam walking the cold roads, memorizing the bits of poems tucked between the pots and pans she carried. Imagine Mandelstam in the camps, speaking to himself the gifts he had made, the poems no one could pluck from his heart." - Karen Chamberlain
(Mariah speaking) This is so true. I have memorized poetry - unassigned by my teachers - since I was 12. And they have kept me company all these years - I still have them. Now, inspired by an old Irish poet I know, I've begun memorizing again, and I have a list of 15 that I recite to myself every day, plus the one that I'm working on memorizing. Poems, essays, speeches, passages from the Bible, and from Shakespeare. Accompanied by these words, I will never be lonely or bored.
Would you like to see the list? Okay......
1. Hungry Heart - Edna St. Vincent Millay
2. A Psalm of Life - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3. I John 4:7&8
4. II Timothy 1:7
5. Ephesians 4:29
6. God is America's King - Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. Latin Table Blessing
8. St. Crispin's Day - Shakespeare
9. The Quality of Mercy - Shakespeare
10. Psalm 19:14
11. When Earth's Last Picture is Painted - Rudyard Kipling
12. The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet
13. If - Rudyard Kipling
14. The Hound of Heaven - Francis Thompson
15. She Walks in Beauty - Lord Byron
16. Song: To Celia (Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes) - Ben Johnson. (currently working on)
(Mariah speaking) This is so true. I have memorized poetry - unassigned by my teachers - since I was 12. And they have kept me company all these years - I still have them. Now, inspired by an old Irish poet I know, I've begun memorizing again, and I have a list of 15 that I recite to myself every day, plus the one that I'm working on memorizing. Poems, essays, speeches, passages from the Bible, and from Shakespeare. Accompanied by these words, I will never be lonely or bored.
Would you like to see the list? Okay......
1. Hungry Heart - Edna St. Vincent Millay
2. A Psalm of Life - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3. I John 4:7&8
4. II Timothy 1:7
5. Ephesians 4:29
6. God is America's King - Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. Latin Table Blessing
8. St. Crispin's Day - Shakespeare
9. The Quality of Mercy - Shakespeare
10. Psalm 19:14
11. When Earth's Last Picture is Painted - Rudyard Kipling
12. The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet
13. If - Rudyard Kipling
14. The Hound of Heaven - Francis Thompson
15. She Walks in Beauty - Lord Byron
16. Song: To Celia (Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes) - Ben Johnson. (currently working on)
Mariah... I also had to memorise many poems and at the time just thought it was a waste of time. Now, how I truly appreciate it. As you said, they are in our minds and pop out at times that we really need them. I especially find the African idioms I learnt the best that keep me going.... "You cannot step into the same river twice"... "if you pick up one end of the stick you also pick up the other"... "If you carry the egg basket do not dance"... Even the best cooking pot will not produce food... from Jeanne
ReplyDeleteYes, I love the ones that express ideas I never want to forget, and also the ones that paint a picture I want to keep with me.
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