Learning by Heart
While I am unfamiliar with the work of this cartoonist, Lynda Barry, I do like what she says about the potential function of memorizing poetry and its subsequent availability in the subconscious.
(via Twitter PRSatran)
For a few years, I tended to learn the poems that my daughter was learning to recite by heart, but even that’s been a while. I need to memorize some more.
I’ve decided on this as my first:
The Coming American
By Sam Walter Foss
Bring me men to match my mountains;
Bring me men to match my plains, --
Men with empires in their purpose,
And new eras in their brains.
Bring me men to match my prairies,
Men to match my inland seas,
Men whose thought shall pave a highway
Up to ampler destinies;
Pioneers to clear Thought's marshlands,
And to cleanse old Error's fen;
Bring me men to match my mountains --
Bring me men!
Bring me men to match my plains, --
Men with empires in their purpose,
And new eras in their brains.
Bring me men to match my prairies,
Men to match my inland seas,
Men whose thought shall pave a highway
Up to ampler destinies;
Pioneers to clear Thought's marshlands,
And to cleanse old Error's fen;
Bring me men to match my mountains --
Bring me men!
Bring me men to match my forests,
Strong to fight the storm and blast,
Branching toward the skyey future,
Rooted in the fertile past.
Bring me men to match my valleys,
Tolerant of sun and snow,
Men within whose fruitful purpose
Time's consummate blooms shall grow.
Men to tame the tigerish instincts
Of the lair and cave and den,
Cleans the dragon slime of Nature --
Bring me men!
Strong to fight the storm and blast,
Branching toward the skyey future,
Rooted in the fertile past.
Bring me men to match my valleys,
Tolerant of sun and snow,
Men within whose fruitful purpose
Time's consummate blooms shall grow.
Men to tame the tigerish instincts
Of the lair and cave and den,
Cleans the dragon slime of Nature --
Bring me men!
Bring me men to match my rivers,
Continent cleavers, flowing free,
Drawn by the eternal madness
To be mingled with the sea;
Men of oceanic impulse,
Men whose moral currents sweep
Toward the wide-enfolding ocean
Of an undiscovered deep;
Men who feel the strong pulsation
Of the Central Sea, and then
Time their currents to its earth throb --
Bring me men!
Continent cleavers, flowing free,
Drawn by the eternal madness
To be mingled with the sea;
Men of oceanic impulse,
Men whose moral currents sweep
Toward the wide-enfolding ocean
Of an undiscovered deep;
Men who feel the strong pulsation
Of the Central Sea, and then
Time their currents to its earth throb --
Bring me men!
What do you think? When is the last time you memorized a poem? Is it about time to do it again?
Comments
The last poem I really tried to memorize...hmmmmm...I think it was Sonnet 43 "How do I love thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and that was years ago. I love having poems and other swaths of literature waiting around in my head. I like this poem you put up, so I might do that next. Maybe we can make a family project out of it!
The best poem I ever memorized (and it lives on in my brains), hands down: "Kublai Khan" by Coleridge. :o)
K -
Between the recommendations from you and Amy, you can bet I'll be getting the class on CD when it comes out.
I could go on. . . fifth grade, annoyed that I had to do it but still remember Robert Frost. A wonderful exercise.