September is Coming | Time to Memorize a Poem

August 20, 2008

Last year was the first ever Memorize Poetry Month. MePoMo, anyone?

See this post about memorizing poetry and see this list of favorite poems (a list made by you, dear readers) for poems you may wish to memorize.

Who’s in this year? Please post in the comments with a link to your blog if you’ll participate, and I’ll make a big, fat list of participants.

Here are the two rules:

1. One poem per week…how difficult can that be?

2. One poem can be shorter than 10 lines. Ideally, the others should be longer than 10 lines.

Two rules and four poems in month…easy, aye?

If you’re in, let me know in the comments.

Towards the beginning of September, we can all share the titles we want to memorize. I hope to discover poems I’ve not read before or don’t know well.

{ 1 trackback }

Poetry Blog of 32 Poems Magazine | Let’s Memorize Poems!
September 5, 2008 at 11:17 pm

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Steve S August 20, 2008 at 11:38 pm

Okay, I’m in. Last year I memorized these:

“Ozymandias” by Percy Shelley
“Anecdote of the Jar” by Wallace Stevens
“Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” by James Wright
“Song of the Powers” by David Mason

This year I for sure want do “I Know a Man” by Robert Creeley and “Cuckoo” by Larissa Szporluk, though that last one will be a taller order.

(Sorry if this comment double-posts.)

Reply

Sally Molini August 22, 2008 at 9:47 am

I’m in, too. Last year I memorized:

“Kubla Khan” by Coleridge (first 30 lines or so)
“The Grandeur of God” by Hopkins
Sonnet #1 by Shakespeare
Opening speech by the Duke in Twelfth Night

This year: “The Windhover, ” two more of Shakespeare’s sonnets, plus two contemporary poems still to be selected.

Reply

Peter Joseph Gloviczki August 23, 2008 at 8:17 am

Hi, everyone!

Thought I’d chime in on this one:

Stephen Dobyns: How To Like It

Hope you’re well, Peter

Reply

Melissa Morris September 13, 2008 at 11:47 am

Hi Deborah,
I think memorizing poetry is really great for so many reasons. It helps with the reading and understanding of the poem, memory skills, and when reciting the poem, it helps with public speaking, expression, and so on! I am a teacher and memorizing poems is something that I plan to have my students do this year. I hadn’t actually thought of assigning some poems to myself through the year… but I think that I will!

I don’t know if I can commit to a poem a week, but I will commit to at least two or three!

~Melissa :)
http://www.melissamorris.wordpress.com

Reply

Sarah December 12, 2008 at 4:14 pm

Is it too late to join in as well? :)

I’m learning Keat’s Ode on Melancholy at the moment, and have just finished Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold.

Reply

Leave a Comment