# Were You Made to Memorize Long Passages in Your Literature Classes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 27, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663 "2010-06-27T03:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/41 "2010-06-27T21:03:04Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Graduated from public high school in CA in 1996, never had to memorize anything in English classes. > > The only things we were required to memorize were in junior high history. In seventh grade, we had to memorize the names of the presidents of the US in chronological order to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. I can still do this - in fact, I don’t even need to sing it, I can just recite them while mentally singing the song. It is an impressive party trick. In eighth grade, we had to memorize the preamble to the Constitution. Probably because we didn’t set it to a song, I no longer have it memorized. I can do the same thing with the fifty states in alphabetical order because of a song. I kinda wish we had been forced to learn the presidents, too. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/42 "2010-06-27T21:05:06Z")
I can wan that Aprille like a motherfucker, yes. It’s taking up room in my brain that can be used for something else, and I might die of Alzheimers at age 437 and I’ll still know the first 20 lines from the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/43 "2010-06-27T22:29:33Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I can do the same thing with the fifty states in alphabetical order because of a song. I kinda wish we had been forced to learn the presidents, too. Never too late to learn. The only problem is, the song doesn’t scan well at the moment. Bush 1 was president when I was in 7th grade and the song worked _perfectly_. Tacking on “Clinton Bush Obama” leaves you stranded halfway through another verse. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/44 "2010-06-27T23:39:31Z")
Public high school in Sydney, Australia in the mid-'90s. I had to memorise key Shakespearean solliliquys, poems, some Dickens, etc. I was in the top-tier of 2 unit (i.e. six periods per week) English, which may make a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/45 "2010-06-27T23:45:04Z")
Public School… south side of Chicago… Macbeth… ah thank you Ms Oleck… I still have snatches of Death is but a cruel player etc etc in my head… Hail MacBeth Thane of Cawdor!! ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/46 "2010-06-27T23:56:59Z")
WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, And smale fowles maken melodye, That slepen al the night with open ye, (So priketh hem nature in hir corages: Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes; And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The holy blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke. Bifel that, in that sesoun on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage To Caunterbury with ful devout corage, At night was come in-to that hostelrye Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye, Of sondry folk, by aventure y-falle In felawshipe, and pilgrims were they alle, That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde; The chambres and the stables weren wyde, And wel we weren esed atte beste. And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste, So hadde I spoken with hem everichon, That I was of hir felawshipe anon, And made forward erly for to ryse, To take our wey, ther as I yow devyse. Ummm yes…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/47 "2010-06-28T00:04:05Z")
I attended both public and private high schools (in TN, too) and didn’t have to memorize anything. Well, not for any literature classes. I did have to memorize a stanza of The Raven for another class. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/48 "2010-06-28T00:23:10Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I went to public school and didn’t have to memorize anything. What were you supposed to get out of memorizing texts? Aside from assuring that you’ve actually spent time reading over the text repeatedly rather than a Cliff’s Notes version of it, it also provides you with the opportunity to exercise the skill of memorization (outside the context of popular songs with simplistic lyrics). Being able to remember random data and information is a valuable life skill for anyone. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/49 "2010-06-28T05:14:55Z")
> [@ThisSpaceForRent](#): > > WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote > The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote, > And bathed every veyne in swich licour, > Of which vertu engendred is the flour; > Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth > Inspired hath in every holt and heeth > The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne > Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, > And smale fowles maken melodye, > That slepen al the night with open ye, > (So priketh hem nature in hir corages: > Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, > And palmers for to seken straunge strondes, > To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes; > And specially, from every shires ende > Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende This is exactly what I had to memorize in 10th grade History Class! Our teacher even tought us the “correct” pronunciation, which I guess is the pronunciation that most scholars agree upon or something. Also we stopped in the midpoint IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/50 "2010-06-28T11:23:09Z")
> [@ThisSpaceForRent](#): > > WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote > The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote, > And bathed every veyne in swich licour, > Of which vertu engendred is the flour; > Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth > Inspired hath in every holt and heeth > The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne > Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, > And smale fowles maken melodye, > T\ > > Ummm yes…😃 This. I used to use it as an incantation to “majik away the monsters” from under my small son’s bed, out of his closet, etc. 25 years ago and I know every word still. Also, bits of McBeth, R&J, and Julius Ceaser, all of The Raven, all of Annabelle Lee, and some Robert Burns. Mississippi and California public schools both in the mid-80s. Graduated in 86. Fuck I’m old. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/51 "2010-06-28T11:54:53Z")
Didn’t have to- we had to memorize ten lines from Shakespeare during grade ten or eleven. I memorized really long poems on my own because I enjoyed them, and I’m good at memory work. I used to write out classic poetry on the backs of my Biology tests. The teacher thought it was funny. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/52 "2010-06-28T12:13:37Z")
I went to public school and we never had to do memorizations. But I was in that era with the “new math,” where it was uncool to teach facts and the whole idea of teaching concepts instead was emphasized. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/53 "2010-06-28T12:16:38Z")
I assume that memorizing the school play doesn’t count. Plus, ours weren’t exactly high literature. My parents didn’t have to memorize literature fragments for school either; the list of the Goth kings, yes (a royal PITA, since they lasted about 300 years and changed more often than the offers at Wal-Mart), fragments from Lope, no. We did memorize poems to recite in Christmas (we’d get money from our relatives for it) but they didn’t have to be Christmas-related; Dad once learned Espronceda’s Pirate Song and he still remembered all of it some 40 years later. All I know by heart is the first two stanzas… ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/54 "2010-06-28T15:14:03Z")
Public school. The only thing I was ever made to memorize was the Preamble, but I did end up memorizing the Gettysburg Address because it was our default exercise in Personal Typing. If we didn’t have anything else to do, put a sheet of paper in the typewriter and bang out the G.A. Didn’t have to be from memory, but I typed it so damn many times I know it by heart. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Rosetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Green\_Rosetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Rosetta)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/55 "2010-06-29T03:19:17Z")
Catholic high school here, and had to memorize in every lit class from freshman to senior. Some of it we had to recite in front of the class, and some of it we had to memorize to write down (those were a particulary pain in the ass, because we had to memorize the correct punctuation as well, as well as the line breaks!) Freshman year was Romeo and Juliet (which I still remember because I found it so beautiful), sophomore was large parts of Thoreau’s Walden and Shylock’s speech from Merchant of Venice, Psalm 23, and I think some other transcendentalist/romanticist stuff, junior year was Canterbury Tales in Middle English, Hamlet, Macbeth, and John Donne, and senior year was The Odyssey and King Lear. I guess it was good for me, but I was already doing a lot of theater so it isn’t like I wasn’t memorizing tons of stuff on my own anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/56 "2010-06-29T05:07:12Z")
Catholic elementary and high school in the 1950s and 1960s in the Bronx. We only had to memorize one passage for recitation once, in one class (probably about sixth grade). We got to pick; I chose Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech, since it was comparatively short. ---
**Author:** ![seanchai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@seanchai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seanchai)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/57 "2010-06-29T05:10:29Z")
Graduated … um, a few decades ago 🙂 Starting about grade 4 we had to memorize poems, which led to great whacks of poetry and good ol’ Shakespeare by the time we hit high school. We started with small stuff, like “Do you feel the force of the wind, the slash of the rain? / Go face them and fight them, be savage again …” and on to John Masefield’s “Sea Fever” then, after some classical bits of English-English poetry (the daffodils dude, the country churchyard dude), Henry V’s speech to his soldiers, “Once more unto the breach dear friends …” All of this stuff had to be vomited forth on demand, at exam times. I am somewhat bemused to know I can rattle off some of these even today; our teachers believed in stuffing us with English (and French and Latin) and history. It’s likely you could tell our ages by what we had to endure in school. We rural Baby Boomers often came from multi-grade classrooms - I was in grade 8 before I experienced one grade in a classroom - and it’s my belief that rote work kept us busy while the teachers attended to another set of students. We did multiplication tables, too, eg - 6,1,6; 6,2,12; 6,3,18; and all the way to 6,12, 72 - all at a machine-gun pace. an seanchai ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/58 "2010-06-29T13:59:30Z")
I went to private schools in the UK until I was 13 ('96) and only ever had to memorize one “long” passage - a poem of our choice by an English author. I think I was about 9 at the time, and chose _Jabberwocky_ (obviously!) \*'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe all mimsy were the borogroves and the mome raths, outgrabe Beware the Jabberwock, my son the jaws that bite, the claws that catch beware the jub-jub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch He took his vorpal sword in hand long time the manxome foe he sought so rested he by the Tumtum tree and stood awhile, in thought And as in uffish thought he stood the Jabberwock, with eyes of flame came whiffling through the tulgey wood and burbled as it came One-two! One-two! and through and through his vorpal sword went snicker-snack he left it dead, and with its head he went gallumphing back And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy oh frabjous day! Call-oo! Call-ay! He chortled in his joy 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe all mimsy were the borogroves and the mome raths, outgrabe\* Hmmm. Now that I’ve typed it out, I realize that’s the first time I’ve _written_ the poem down from memory, and I have no idea which of the beasts and things are supposed to be capitalized. Think I got close, though. ETA: Accidentally typed “Jabberwork” a few times. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/59 "2010-06-29T22:57:33Z")
\*Sea Fever \*by John Masefield “To be or not to be…”, etc. The Declaration of Independence The Gettysburg Address The US presidents’ last names in chronological order (Public school) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663/60 "2010-06-30T04:48:29Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I’m always surprised to hear people genuinely ask “why/what good is memorization?” for I wonder how do they learn any facts if they don’t, you know, remember them? Memorization and learning are two completely different things. When you learn something, you take knowledge and build it on something else you already know. When you have to memorize something, there is no context whatsoever. You’re just memorizing sounds. It’s perfectly possible to memorize something without knowing anything at all about it. It is not possible to learn something in that manner. Which would you value more? Someone who can quote all of Shakespeare’s plays, or someone who actually knows what they mean? Finally, memorized facts are the first to go. Something you’ve learned, you can recreate from what you already know. Something that is memorized–you forget the exact words, and you’re sunk. I really don’t know why memorization is valued at all. And, yes, I memorized a poem once. I knew it for one class period. What great good that did me. The only good reason to memorize is if you are going to perform, and have a short time to do it in. Otherwise, actually learn it. ETA: Even if I had a whole passage memorized, I’d still have to go through the whole thing to get to the part under discussion. Far better to keep the written form in front of you. When your entire short term memory isn’t full, trying to remember the exact words, you actually have enough room to think. You don’t have to constantly repeat the words to yourself [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-made-to-memorize-long-passages-in-your-literature-classes/544663.md?page=4)