Memory Challenge: First Poem?
What poem have you chosen as your first to memorize?
I decided to take the path of least resistance for a while and memorize poems that I already know bits and pieces of. (It's maddening to get to line 5 or so and not remember how the rest goes!)
So my first is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." The next two will be "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and
"Kubla Khan."
How about you?
-Drew
I'm visiting at my mother's,
I'm visiting at my mother's, so I'll have to go to the library or see what she has on her shelf. Or maybe find something online. There are several pieces I'd like to commit to memory. Maybe I'll go easy on myself and start with Shel Silverstein.
I'd like to memorize some Shakespeare, but first I have to pin my husband down and make him teach me how to recite it properly. He winced last time I tried (St. Crispin's day speech from Henry V).
I've also been working on my extemporaneous storytelling skills. Simple things like being able to tell my daughter a well known fairy or nursery tale without having to have a book in front of me. Traditional versions with the repetitive lines intact help. "Little pig, little pig, let me in...Not by the hair of my chinny-chin chin" and so on. My Three Billy Goats' Gruff needs some work, though. Took me a while to remember the traditional plot (as opposed to a PC version).
Seein' Things
I've picked Seein' Things by Eugene Field. I loved reading this poem as a child! It would be a really fun poem for a boy to memorize.
http://www.poetry-archive.com/f/seein_things.html
I don't know how much I'm going to try to do, but...
I think I'll join you, Drew, in memorizing "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." :) That's one of my favorites, and 9yos likes it, too.
I can't read "Kubla Khan," though, without wanting to go re-read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Now THERE is a classic. ;)
Mine...
I will be learning:
Daffodils by William Wordsworth, which I almost have down, and I'd like to learn The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, since my DD is named after it :) But it might be a little long...
Maybe I'll try Maude instead!
~Rachel~
SAHM to James (6) and Lenore (2)
I'm trying Stopping by Woods, but already have a problem...
Once upon a time this poem was performed on Prairie Home Companion set to the music of Fernando's Hideaway. Every time I try to read or recite it I hear that tune in my mind. Yikes!
LOL!
Well, you know the old joke about Emily Dickinson and "The Yellow Rose of Texas"... ;)
But seriously: Have you ever heard the setting in the "Frostiana Suite"? I think it's by Randall Thompson. Lovely, dark and deep indeed. In fact, that's why I chose "Stopping by Woods" as my first poem. I sang it in the high school chorus, lo these many years ago.
-Drew
***
"Hardly any lawful price would seem to me too high for what I have gained by being
made to learn Latin and Greek. —C. S. Lewis
***
I haven't decided yet (m)
But my default poem is "The Yak" by Hillaire Belloc, as that's what the kids are learning this month.
I would love to join in as well!
I was planning on rereading the Iliad for a more indepth study compared to my usual pleasure reading, does epic poetry count?
Krista
You bet!
If you have a preferred translation, you might see if there's a companion audiobook. When I get around to memorizing epic poetry (he says hopefully), I'll definitely need the model of a good, rhythmic reader to imitate.
-Drew
***
"Hardly any lawful price would seem to me too high for what I have gained by being made to learn Latin and Greek. —C. S. Lewis
***
Great!
Great! The edition I currently own is translated by Robert Fagles, which I actually like, but I've never read any other translation of the Iliad - if another translation is preferable over Fagles, please suggest who you would find a better translator that reflects the poetic qualities of the Iliad! I suppose I will start with the memorable first opening paragraph of Book I - small, but just right for my already overpacked mind!
Krista - VA
Mom of Ariel 6yo and Aetheldred 1yo
Memory work
Hey Drew,
I have decided to memorize with my dc and so we are learning the following:
The Creation, by Cecil Francis Alexander
The Road Goes Ever On, from the Hobbit
The Wreck of the Hesperus. By Longfellow
as well as a number of scriptures.
" The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, for it it with the written word that we do most powerfully preserve that which is noble and expose that which is evil. And so in great part, the very future of society rests with those who can write, and write well"
www.homeschoolblogger.com/twinacres
Okay, I finally chose my first poem
I'm going to memorize Sea Fever by John Masefield.
I decided to work on something other than what my kids are learning.
And this one is nice as I have an itty bitty head start. All of the first two lines, but still, it's a start. :)
- Debra
I've chosen 'Tiger Tiger' by
I've chosen 'Tiger Tiger' by William Blake. My husband's been wearing a T-shirt with it on just recently, so it seemed appropriate:-) Next month I'll do A. B. 'Banjo' Patterson's "The Man from Snowy River" because I already know the first stanza or so, but then I get stuck:-(
I'll see your Frost...
and raise you a Marlowe! ;)
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Debra in TX, who hopes her very first html tags work
Memory Challenge - First Poem?
I really like the idea of memorizing poems that I know just in bits and snatches. Thanks for the idea.
My first poem will be Psalm 19, then Daffodils. I think I'll take this progression through the year: Psalm, Nature poem, Shakespeare, Scholar's Choice, meaning whatever strikes my fancy. I think there are some nonsense poems that my mom used to read to us that I would like to learn for fun, like Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed and Dried Apple Pies.
Carolhs
My choices
Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare
Waiting by the Gate
- W.C. Bryant
I Am Content - Romanian folk song from The Bard of Dimbovitza
-----------------------------------------------
Rivendell Press (a public domain blog) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/karenciavo/
Classical home-schooling mom to 3 boys (13, 11, 3)
Some of our favorites:
Language, Literature, and Life: Latin Book