Memorizing Poetry

Apr 14

I’ve memorized poetry since I was a kid. It started at 8 with my mom having us memorize Psalms 8, 23, 100, and 121 with our nightly prayers. When I was 13, I started memorizing poems on my own. The first was Edgar Allen Poe’s Dream Within a Dream and then classics like Emily Dickinson’s Hope is a Thing with Feathers and He Ate and Drank the Precious Words. I can now only remember chunks from the ones I memorized when I was 19 like Kenneth Rexroth’s Remember That Breakfast One November and Allen Ginsburg’s America.

Memorizing poems is like childhood flashbacks for me, I remember so much about my life, environment, and personality from when I was memorizing them.

Memorizing is also a way of studying, understanding, and deciphering text. As I searched for the version of Psalm 8 that I memorized, I compared how different translations praise God. The NIV tells God “you have established a stronghold against your enemies” whereas the NKJV says “you have ordained strength, because of your enemies”. One says God is defensive against her enemies, the other says she is protective because others are against her.

During lockdown, I came across the 1936 version of Shakespeare’s As You Like It and its melodic delivery of words inspired me to pick up a copy and study the play. Reading and watching together has been a fun way to memorize my favorite scenes and ingest his use of language, rhythm, and imagery.

Memorizing poetry can be an active activity or a passive one. When I want to take a break from work, I glance over at my Post-it notes or an open book and savor my favorite writers.

Poetry also shares many qualities with music lyrics like diving into metaphors, breaking grammatical rules, and referencing multiple meanings.

By holding onto the delicious and rich literature of our lives, memorizing poetry can reach another level of engagement, away from the familiar pattern of everyday speech.

Memorizing, studying, and enjoying poetry forms our personality, strengthens neural plasticity, and integrates colorful language to articulate ourselves.

“We have to articulate ourselves, otherwise we would be like cows in the field.” - Werner Herzog.

Memorizing poetry provides the freedom to speak in verse like Shakespeare, eloquate like Jane Austen, and jab like schmuck-motherfuckers.