How I Memorize a Poem

A reflection by Dr. T.

Reasons for Memorizing
Choosing a Poem
Beginning
Continuing
Memory tricks
Finishing
Poems I've Memorized

Reasons: Why do I memorize poems? For one thing, a good poem gets better when I know it well. I keep learning new things about it, and being surprised by things I didn't notice the first time. For another, having some poems memorized is like having a good book handy. I always have something to read, even if it's in my memory. Memorizing is also good exercise for the brain. Also, a teacher should do what the students do. It helps me understand my students better.

Choosing: I have a journal where I write down my favorite poems (I have 80 favorites right now). I read and re-read these poems, especially at bed time, so I already know them well. When I am ready to memorize a new poem, I choose from my favorites. It wouldn't be worth it to memorize a poem I didn't care about. Think about it. You're putting something permanently in your head. Why not make it something you like? A good poem for memorizing should sound good when I read it aloud. Some of the poems I memorize rhyme, others don't. Some are old, some are new. I happen to like poems about animals and poems that have really strong images in them

Beginning: At night, when I go up to bed, I take my journal with me. I read the poem I've chosen out loud to myself. Sometimes my husband comes in when I'm doing this, but he's used to me and doesn't ask me what I'm doing any more. Then I take a couple of lines or a stanza (either from the beginning or from the end), read them aloud again, and then close the book and repeat them to myself out loud. If I can't remember them right away, I check the book as many times as I need until I have it memorized. I don't do much more than this the first night.

If I am still not sleepy, I repeat a couple of other poems to myself, ones I have already memorized. Usually, after several of these, I am already halfway into a dream.I memorize at bedtime because that's a good time to fix something in your memory.

Continuing: The next day, I see if I can remember the lines I memorized the night before. I repeat them to myself from time to time during the day. That night, I do the next set of lines. I do a little bit every day. This works much better than trying to do it in one day because things don't stick in my brain if I just do them once.

Memory tricks: In order to remember, I use memory tricks. For instance, whenever I memorize a poem, it's important to know the first word or couple of words really well, because if I have a strong start the next lines keep popping into my brain, but if I can't start nothing comes. I also like to know the first word of each stanza really well, and the order of the stanzas.

In "Riding A One-Eyed Horse," for instance, the first word is "Nothing," the first word of the second stanza is "Hundreds," the first word of the third stanza is "If," and the first word of the fourth stanza is "And." (This poem is a tough one to memorize because sentences continue from one stanza to the next)

If there are repeated lines, or similar lines, they give me a lot of trouble and I have to remind myself which one I'm doing when I get there.

In the poem "The Singing Cat," the lines "He lifteth up his innocent voice" are repeated with all kinds of variations five times, and there are four lines in which people on a train are reacting to the cat. This poem was really tough to memorize because of this.

I do a lot of what I call "chaining." That is, I think of things to connect lines.

"Sweater Weather," by Sharon Bryan, is a nonsense poem made up of clichés, and common phrases, and it's really hard to memorize because it's mostly about the sounds of words. One stanza goes like this:

Fiddle faddle, fit as a fiddle,
Sultan of swat, muskrat
Ramble, fat and sassy

I put a lot of work into remembering that the stanza starts with "fiddle faddle," which is the brand name of a snack. "Fit as a fiddle" is easy to remember because it has the same kinds of sounds as "fiddle faddle," and one word is the same. But how do I go to "Sultan of swat," which was a nickname for the famous balplayer Babe Ruth? Easy (well, easy for me): I just remember that a sultan (a type of Middle Eastern ruler) would have fiddlers playing for him. "Muskrat ramble" is the name of a song, and I remember it because "muskrat" ends with the same letters as "swat," and "fat and sassy" has the same vowel sound as "rat" and "ramble."

If you are memorizing a poem, you will have to come up with your own memory tricks because that's the secret. Make the poem yours.

Finishing: When I can repeat the poem from start to finish, I'm not done yet. It's only partly memorized. If I let a day or two go by, I will find that it has disappeared from my memory. The human brain is like that. So now the poem goes into what I call "rotation." That is, it's one of the poems I repeat to myself at night or at odd moments during the day. I say it silently to myself and I say it out loud. I play with putting expression into my voice. I try to see if I can say it without pausing.

The poem may never be perfectly memorized. I'm getting older, and things slip away, but even kids with fresh brains will find that if they don't practice a poem, it disappears

Poems I have memorized:

"Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll
"The Singing Cat," by Stevie Smith
"I Wander'd Lonely as a Cloud," by William Wordsworth
"The Turtle," by Kay Ryan
"Fiction," by Howard Nemerov
"Riding a One-Eyed Horse," by Henry Taylor
"The Shark," by John Ciardi
"Bereft," by Robert Frost
"Sweater Weather: A Love Song to Language," by Sharon Bryan
"Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats