Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Memorizing Poetry

In 1943, when Winston Churchill was on a tour of the Maryland countryside, he recited all of the verses to "Barbara Frietchie." He had memorized that and many other poems years earlier while a young army officer stationed in remote areas.

I've decided to have a personal revival of that practice, starting with some easy stuff and then working upwards. There are a few poems that I memorized in elementary school that are still with me.

Let's hear it for Longfellow!

1 comment:

CincyCat said...

My late grandmother had memorized dozens, if not hundreds of poems. It was always amazing to me that she could just pull one out of thin air that went along with whatever we were doing at the time. :)