I imagine we all had to learn some poetry by heart at some stage of our early schooldays. It was demanded of us more as 'educational discipline' than for the love of poetry itself.
The first poem that I remember learning was Thomas Hood's 'I remember, I remember'.
As a smallish boy, I rather liked the poem, and managed to remember it quite easily, although I think I only managed to learn three verses (as below). I ignored the final verse.
The other one I remember learning was Lewis Carroll's 'Some Hallucinations', but again I don't think I learned all of it.
I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day,
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!
I remember, I remember,
The roses, red and white,
The vi'lets, and the lily-cups,
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday,—
The tree is living yet!
I remember, I remember,
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing;
My spirit flew in feathers then,
That is so heavy now,
And summer pools could hardly cool
The fever on my brow!
I don't remember having to learn poems in the younger grades, but I think about grade six or seven we had to learn such things as A Bush Christening and Mulga Bill's Bicycle.
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember that it was a way of teaching us 'how to learn'. We were given tips about how to remember things, etc.
DeleteReminds me of a similar book I recently bought at The British Library called 'Oranges and Lemons ..Nursery Rhymes from Past Times.'
ReplyDeleteIt's has them all. Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, The Grand Old Duke of York, London Bridge is Burning Down as well as Jack and Jill Went up the Hill. But I doubt these Rhymes are taught and read in today's Primary Schools.
Ladybird books were quite the thing at our Primary School.
Whoops! London Bridge is Falling Down, not Burning down!
ReplyDeleteNursery rhymes were much easier to remember because we sang them. I expect they're still taught at home.
DeleteWe learnt poetry at school. My favourite was A Smuggler's Song.....If you walk at midnight and hear a horse's feet......
ReplyDeleteI don't know it, I shall look it up.
DeleteI've just looked, and remembered it at once. Good advice!
DeleteThere was another rhyme starting with 'Remember, Remember the 5th of November' sung as children with great gusto round the bonfire as poor old Guy Fawkes was set ablaze.
ReplyDeleteWe still recite that one every year.
DeleteI don't remember having to learn poetry at school, but I did once know the " Jabberwock" . I loved the strange words in it! I do like poetry to rhyme though....my favourite poem is this one...."Where are the snowdrops?" said the sun.
ReplyDelete"Dead", said the frost," buried and lost, every one."
"A foolish answer", said the sun,
"they did not die, asleep they lie, every one".
"And I will awake them", said the sun,
"into the light, all clad in white, every one".
"It’s rather dark in the earth today",
said one little bulb to its brother,
"but I thought that I felt a sunbeam’s ray.
We must strive and grow ‘till we find our way",
And they nestled close to each other.
They struggled and strived by day and by night,
‘Til two little snowdrops, in green and white,
rose out of the darkness and into the light,
And softly kissed each other.
Annie Matheson (1853 – 1924)
To refer to someone as a 'Slithy Tove' is still one of my favourite insults.
DeleteI didn't know the Snowdrop poem, so thank you for posting it in full.
The only one I remember. . . .
ReplyDeleteDirty British coaster with a salt caked smoked stack, dashing through the channel in the Mad March days. Or something like that.
Yes I remember that one too, although I probably only learned the first few lines.
DeleteI remember starting my English degree at university. In a poetry seminar, the assigned lecturer challenged the group - asking if any of us could recite a poem by heart. I was the only student who could do that, reciting William Wordsworth's "Daffodils". I think that recitation can be both satisfying and instructive.
ReplyDeleteI'm rather surprised that you were the only one. I'd have thought that most of us had learned a few at some time or other. Maybe they were just shy!
DeleteMost of them were Scottish - perhaps in awe of The Master Race.
DeleteMost of the poems mentioned above are ones that I remember having to learn, though I doubt I can now remember every verse. Now you'll have us all wondering how many poems we can recite all the way through!
ReplyDeleteNow I'm trying to remember the poets who wrote them!
We can all probably remember the first verse of many, but the whole poem; I doubt.
DeleteI remember William Blake's Tyger Tyger and can recite some of it. A great poem. Modern day poetry is not memorable and the subject matter is different. Autobiographical prose, little or no rhyme and generally shocking to be regarded a good poetry and I say this as a Masters student of poetry right now.
ReplyDeleteI was listening to a Poetry programme recently on Radio 4 Extra. There is no way anyone could learn the 'poems' they read. There was no logic, no tale, and really no meaning. I was appalled.
DeleteRecord it on video, and we can hear you read it.
ReplyDeleteNo. I'm too shy.
DeleteMy mother and grandmother both loved poetry and my father recited many little ditties. Tennyson and Wordsworth were favourites. Sometime I remember being taught Walter de la Mare but the poetry evades me now.
ReplyDeleteWH Auden's The night mail is the poem I remember most of.
This is the nightmail crossing the border
Bringing the cheque and the postal order
I don't know where I learned it. Probably at school. It's the rhythm which helps the memory.
Auden wrote so many wonderful things. The Night Mail is certainly amongst them.
DeleteMemorization is not even used in math class anymore to learn your multiplication tables, at least not here. It is figured that if a child does multiplication problems every day, he will magically absorb the tables with no real effort. My grandson spent hours on his math homework and fussed. I was amazed after discussing it with the teacher. We spent a summer memorizing the multiplication tables, and he hated me for it. When he went back to school, he was amazed at how much more quickly he could do his math work.
ReplyDeleteBased on that, I'm going to guess that he knows not one poem by heart, and that he never, ever will. Rote learning is considered old fashioned.
Education baffles me these days. It seems to prioritise 'gender realignment' over multiplication tables or Latin verbs.
DeleteI remember memorizing the "Gettysburg Address."
ReplyDeleteDo you still remember it?
Delete