Three Savvy Broads: 004a Memorized poems

Those poems we had to memorize

Maybe I am just a ham, but I enjoyed those hated school room recitations in which everyone stood up in front of the class and recited a memorized poem. I do not understand why we all memorized the same poem. It seemed like the last kid could have memorized it by listening to everyone else—if the previous ones got it right!

Another school time memory (as of Aug.29)

From Kay Ross: Brings back the memory of having to recite from Hamlet to Dr. Garland Quarles during my senior year at JHHS. Had to go to his office... I was scared silly but made it through the soliloquy and one other piece. Was in Mrs. Garrabrandt's class, but Dr. Quarles taught one class of Hamlet while all the other classes studied Macbeth. What a privilege to have been in that class!! Loving your blog, by the way!!

From Adrian O'Connor: Checked in at Three savvy broads. The last entry was right in my wheelhouse -- poetry and recitation. I'm a huge supporter and believer in both.
Of course, I have a recitation story, too. St. Mary's School, Rutherford, N.J., seventh grade: We all had a poem to commit to memory. Mine was "Daybreak," by Longfellow. I remember but one couplet: "And o'er the farm, oh chanticleer/Your clarion blows, the day is near." I remember it because I learned two words from it -- chanticleer and clarion (which remains a fave). Great memories, great blog.

I heard from a few folks about memorizing:
My husband Harry said his senior high English teacher Mrs. Edith C. Garrabrandt at John Handley High had the solution to everyone memorizing the same poem. Each student went into a small room with her to recite the required verses from Macbeth. He is pretty sure it was from Macbeth but does not remember a single line!

From Glenne

We all memorized poetry in our little child years. What are nursery rhymes but poems? Almost everyone had that great literary beginning. Somehow, unless we had a traditional teacher, I don't think we memorized much more poetry throughout our school years.

For me, in the 5th grade, each of us in the class was assigned a different poem. I was assigned Trees by Joyce Kilmer--"I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree." I thought the poem was silly; trees are great but this was a little overly sentimental in my 10 year old mind.

I much preferred memorizing the Gettysburg Address, which although not a poem, was one of the few bits of literature I am glad I memorized. Something like this makes one think about history and the culture around it.

Then, all through high school, my memories are Shakespeare, Shakespeare, and some more Shakespeare from which ever play we were reading. I did have fun with "double, double, toil and trouble." And I remember a few other snippets.

A very few poems I actually read enough to have almost memorized on my own; some John Donne, some Poe, Amy Lowell's Patterns and Robert Browning's My Last Duchess. In these times, can we count learning the words to Sondheim musical theatre numbers?

From Frances

In fifth grade, I memorized the Gettysburg address to recite at a PTA meeting. It was quite a challenge but one I relished.

I convinced my mother I needed a new dress - red, white, and blue - and she bought it both literally and figuratively.

I will never forget standing in front of the packed room and repeating those famous words. The memory is as vivid and real as it was more than 55 years ago.

The Poems in the Quiz
The identity of each poem and image is below. I hear that some of you searched and found all the answers.

1. Each time I see a candle shining alone in a darkened room, I remember:

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

2. And when I blow out that candle:

Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth

3. When watching bees at work in my garden:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

4. When I am feeling sorry for myself, this sonnet often comes to mind:

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless . . .God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts . . His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."
John Milton, On His Blindness

5. At funerals and cemeteries:

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
Emily Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop for Death

6. The siren of the fire truck or ambulance:

Heat the loud alarum bells:
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
"Mr. Onomatopoeia", Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells
Poe invented the word tintinnabulation for this poem. I much confess that I learned this one from the Phil Ochs rendition of the poem. If you want to hear him sing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3FzveBu_34

There are also those common verses that have somehow become a mixed-up mash-up in my head:

By the shores of Gitche Gumee, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha

While I pondered sad and gloomy Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
Did you catch how I messed up the line? It should
read, While I pondered weak and weary

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last . . .
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

What about you? Any good stories about recitations gone wrong? What verses do you remember? You can post your answers here or on the Three Savvy Broads Facebook page.

Trish Ridgeway