I guess I didn't express what I meant clearly; I mean that the running joke is that who ever is reciting is interrupted, but is the joke more than just the interruption? As in, obviously Anderson chose when to interrupt and how the recitation was interrupted.in the film, not finishing the poems has to do with interruption and not because they have any trouble remembering.
Ah... To me it seems that people were all too ready and willing to cut off the poems in order to get on to more important things. The best interruption occurs when Gustav is hanging off of the cliff reciting his death poem and Zero throws Willem Defoe over. It's a hilarious moment.
Right, but it also said that Gustav had that collection of modernist poetry and it did seem to figure into his character. Like that thing about boning old, rich women. Anyway, in Wes Anderson movies I'm never sure what any but the most obvious symbols are vs. opportunities (intentional or otherwise) for the viewer to "read into" a particular scene or the movie as a whole. I like Willem Dafoe as a thug and while his scenes were pretty cartoonish, I kind of felt like more could have been done with his character.