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veen · 3771 days ago · link · · parent · post: Lil's Book of Questions: Shakespeare By Heart? and What Have You Memorized?
I had a similar experience back in highschool. My German teacher was the kind of teacher who'd be listening to Beethoven on 11 when you'd enter his class, the one who'd shout at you if you disrupted his lessons. Wonderful guy. He believed that no person was worth his salt if he couldn't recite one poem. So he learned us a German poem:
He asked a random person in the class to recite it at the beginning of every lesson for a half year. I can still recite it word for word. Definitely formative. Das Fräulein stand am Meere
Und seufzte lang und bang,
Es rührte sie so sehre
Der Sonnenuntergang.
"Mein Fräulein! Sein Sie munter,
Das ist ein altes Stück;
Hier vorne geht sie unter
Und kehrt von hinten zurück.