Weekly Project: Memorize a Poem
This week’s project is to memorize and recite a poem.
WHY?
The point of this project is to consider the ways that orality, literacy, and memory interact. What is the difference between an external piece of knowledge–something written down–and a piece of knowledge you have internalized and incorporated into your self? What techniques and technologies are available to help you memorize a poem?
Poetry memorization used to be a regular part of the educational curriculum at many US and English elementary and secondary schools. It is making a bit of a comeback in college poetry classes. In his article, “Why We Should Memorize Poetry,” Brad Leithauser observes:
“The best argument for verse memorization may be that it provides us with knowledge of a qualitatively and physiologically different variety: you take the poem inside you, into your brain chemistry if not your blood, and you know it at a deeper, bodily level than if you simply read it off a screen.”
HOW?
Five-minute time slots are available for you to come recite in person at our offices in Padelford on the following dates:
Monday October 13, 10 am – 12 noon
Thursday October 16, 1 pm to 3 pm
Friday October 17, 10 am – 11 am
Monday October 20, 10 am – 12 noon
Thursday October 23 1 pm to 3 pm
Friday October 24, 10 am – 11 am
Sign up at cms297-poetry-readings.youcanbook.me. For moral support, feel free to sign up adjacent to a friend or with your learning group!
After you recite the poem, we will ask you your thoughts about the poem’s content, the recitation process, and so on.
WHERE?
All poetry readings will take place in Padelford Hall on the 5th floor, C wing, room 506.
THE GRADE
25 / 25 for perfect recitation
– 1 point per line flubbed
+5-10 points for having thoughts about the poem to share
You can earn more than 25/25 on this assignment
You are allowed one 5-second peek, at one point, at the poem to remind yourself where you are or of what comes next.
THE CORPUS
You have been given a corpus of poems to memorize for a few reasons. First, it is easier to grade this way. Second, I chose poems that could, potentially, even if obliquely, be discussed with relation to some of the subject matter of our courses. Third, I chose poems that seem, rhythmically, easier to memorize.
All poems are between 15 and 30 lines. Note that length does not correlate immediately to ease of memorization; poems with formal meter and rhyming schemes tend to be much easier to memorize, even when they are longer!
All of these poems were originally composed and published in English; I had to eliminate some great options because of this choice, but this way your efforts will lead you to internalize something closer to an “original” version of the poet’s thoughts and words.
There are 10 options (two more forthcoming), arranged below in chronological order.
The World is Too Much With Us, ca 1802
William Wordsworth
“little we see in nature that is ours / we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon”
Watch a reading of the poem by PBS host and curator Sarah Urist Green
Read about the relationship of this poem to modern life in a short column by Thomas Gelthrope
Read a transcript of Beat poet Allen Ginsburg discussing Wordsworth in a 1975 seminar
I tie my Hat——I crease my Shawl, ca. 1860s
by Emily Dickinson
“To simulate——is stinging work——/To cover what we are/From Science——and from Surgery——/Too Telescopic Eyes”
Read an exploration of this poem by poet Robert Pinksy.
Thoughts in a Zoo, 1927
by Countee Cullen (1903-1946 /
“Man could but little proffer in exchange / Save that his cages have a larger range.”
Read about the poet
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell, 1945
by Gwendolyn Brooks
“No man can give me any word but Wait, / The puny light. I keep eyes pointed in”
Read about the poet
Read why New York Times critic A.O. Scott would “follow this poem to hell and back“
Watch social media videographer Taylor Behnke recite the poem
The More Loving One, 1957
W.H. Auden
“Looking up at the stars I know quite well / That for all they care, I can go to hell”
Read about Auden’s life in an essay by Maria Popova.
Hear a recording of Auden reading the poem.
One Art, 1978
by Elizabeth Bishop
“Lose something every day. Accept the fluster / of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. / The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”
Read about the poem and Bishop’s life in an essay by Vadim Goss.
Watch musician and podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway recite the poem
We Lived Happily During the War, 2013
by Ilya Kaminsky
“In the sixth month / of a disastrous reign in the house of money / in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money”
Read about the poet
Read a short conversation between Kaminsky and another Deaf poet, Raymond Luczack
Watch Ilya Kaminsky recite his poem
If You Find that Living is a Little Bit Sad, 2018
by Wendy Xu
“Someone’s face in a living room bounded / by computer screen is not the same as someone / in a living room. Make choices, then watch / stuff happen”
Read about the poet
Watch actor and writer John Hodgman recite the poem
American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [“I lock you in…”], 2017
by Terrance Hayes
“I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison, /Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame.“
Read about the poet
Watch Terrance Hayes recite his poem
I am the Machine and I Work, 2025
by Asha Futterman
“the person i was working for told me and my coworkers / to read more complaints and give the machine more words / but there are only so many words”
Asha Futterman is the youngest poet on this list and there is not much writing out there about this poem, but you read about the poet and follow her Instagram for more information about her work.