A Shropshire Lad 2: Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
By A. E. Housman
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Graduated high school in '13, and the only thing I ever memorized like that was the preamble in early elementary school, and the pledge of allegiance of course. Although I can still recite them to this day, I never understood the purpose beyond patriotic indoctrination. As for memorizing things the author describes, I imagine there are good intentions but I still have my doubts. I think there's a difference between casually recalling something (as the author says, 'misplacing my phone'), and consciously memorizing something (i.e. memorizing literature). I think long-form memorization just for memorization own sake is kind of a waste of valuable school time, when students could instead be taught various critical thinking skills. Unless practicing forced memorization actually improves casual recall? According to the article, it seems the only advantage is reciting poetry as a cute parlor trick, and more appreciation and understanding of literature - of which there are much more effective and multipurposed ways of instilling.
Quite a few of my good friends are memorization machines. Some of them are able to quote religious scriptures, poetry, and various historical writings, others can quote scenes from movies, songs, or plays verbatim, and some can recall times we've hung out from start to finish, from what was discussed to what was done. I don't really think any of them have developed these abilities through formal schooling or techniques, but just by being very passionate about the things that they find interesting or valuable. I wonder if memorization was taught and developed less by emphasizing exercise and practice, and developed more by emphasizing what people are passionate about on personal, individual levels, more people would develop memorization skills.
A much easier Housman poem to memorise: The hollow night amid, Then on my tongue the taste is sour Of all I ever did. I know an older gentlemen who can recite over forty Irish poems owing to being forced to memorise them back in school. The result is sweet, but the process sounds like torture.When the bells justle in the tower
When Helen Lived - W. B. Yeats That men desert, For some trivial affair Or noisy, insolent sport, Beauty that we have won From bitterest hours; Yet we, had we walked within Those topless towers Where Helen walked with her boy, Had given but as the rest Of the men and women of Troy, A word and a jest.We have cried in our despair