Jabberwocky . . . in fact, I used to perform it with a few friends who also memorized it.
Another Jabberwocky checking in.
Cremation of Sam McGee
The Lorax
And two by a guy named Guy Agranoff that I heard recited by the folk singer Bill Staines
The Ballad of Jake and Ten-Ton Molly
The Battle of Trenton
I’m not 100% on this, but I always thought “Fleas” was written by Ogden Nash.
I’ve memorized only a couple… and forgotten them again.
The Night Before Christmas (Grade 5 Christmas Concert we recited this and had to memorize it)
The Cremation of Sam McGee (Grade 7 Drama)
and just cuz I love it The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, looping the purple moor
And the highwayman came riding, riding, riding
The highwatman came riding up to the old inn door.
(I first read it in a romance novel because someone used it as a place to start from… then I heard Loreena McKennit’s version put to music and I had to learn it)
Homer’s “The Iliad.” Man was that a bitch.
I also memorized The Jabberwocky at one point. I used to be able to recite The Raven almost the entire way through, which I was quite proud of. But lately my memory seems to have turned to cottage cheese. It’s all I can do to remember the lame haiku I write.
Blake’s <i>Mad Song</i> But I’ve forgotten it now.
Poetry sucks. Except for the dirty limericks.
Also done:
Jabberwocky
Kubla Khan
The Highwayman (just because it’s a neat poem)
& much shorter, Cargoes because my mother learnt it when she was young.
I also know tons & tons of Spike Milligan’s silly poems, because they’re fun, but they’re very short. And I somehow ended up learning Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech from Romeo & Juliet for no real reason at all.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nostradamus *
**
Naughty words (just think of it!)
Would send this thread straight to the Pit.
Longfellow’s The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. I also know Casey at the Bat.
Not a poem, but lately I’ve been working on M.L. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
Hmmm, I do believe it was Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Bells” back in 5th grade. “The Bells, Bells, Bells, Bells, Bells…” on second thought…maybe it wassnt so hard to memorize as I remeber it being.
Some poem in French I memorized and recited for a statewide French poetry recital competition for year 9 students. L’Albatrosse, though I’ve probably mangled the spelling and I can’t remember who wrote it. I’ve repressed most of French class, so I can’t remember it anymore. I did win 2nd prize though. So now I have a great big impressive looking (and probably one day valuable) book of French poetry I can’t understand.
[sub]NOTE: I live in Australia, not the US, so coming second in a statewide competition isn’t as impressive as it sounds.[/sub]
Longest was “Locksley Hall”, but I’ve long since forgotten it.
Next, probably “The Raven”, which has been slowly slipping away from me.
I can still nail “Kublai Khan” perfectly unless I’m interrupted… Damn, you, Nostradamus, for beating me to that joke. You’re one hell of a clever prognosticator.
The longest poem I still know by heart that is not yet listed: “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.
I did memorise, more or less accidentally The Man From Snowy River but that was a while ago. I have trouble getting through it all in one hit now although it only takes the slightest clue to pick up the thread again.
It’s got that sort of rhythm that makes it easy to pick up and I firmly believe that every Australian is actually born knowing at least the first few lines:
There was movement at the station for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away…
It’s not deep and meaningul or anything, but it’s a great yarn.
The Finn who wouldn’t tak a Sauna
By Margret Haskins Derber the poet lauret of Lake Woebegone MN.
[sup]
The Maven. [/sup]
I’m reviving this old thread. Let’s see, it’s really hard to stop me from reciting poetry… I wouldn’t mind being paid to do it.
I’m working on Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot. I’ve got the first two down- Burnt Norton and East Coker. They’re about twelve minutes each, spoken. Also his A Song For Simeon, and I want to do The Journey Of the Magi as well. Others…
To His Coy Mistress- Marvell
Ulysses- Tennyson
A lot of Emily Dickinson
The Conversation Of Prayers About To Be Said, And Death Shall Have No Dominion, Fern Hill, and bits of A Child’s Christmas In Wales- Dylan Thomas
Jabberwocky
To Lucasta, Going To The Wars
The River-Merchant’s Wife- A Letter- Ezra Pound (my favourite love poem)
If- Rudyard Kipling
The Donkey- G. K. Chesterton
And a bunch more that I don’t remember clearly. Mostly funny, short ones.
I’m reviving this old thread. Let’s see, it’s really hard to stop me from reciting poetry… I wouldn’t mind being paid to do it.
I’m working on Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot. I’ve got the first two down- Burnt Norton and East Coker. They’re about twelve minutes each, spoken. Also his A Song For Simeon, and I want to do The Journey Of the Magi as well. Others…
To His Coy Mistress- Marvell
Ulysses- Tennyson
A lot of Emily Dickinson
The Conversation Of Prayers About To Be Said, And Death Shall Have No Dominion, Fern Hill, and bits of A Child’s Christmas In Wales- Dylan Thomas
Jabberwocky
To Lucasta, Going To The Wars
The River-Merchant’s Wife- A Letter- Ezra Pound (my favourite love poem)
If- Rudyard Kipling
The Donkey- G. K. Chesterton
And a bunch more that I don’t remember clearly. Mostly funny, short ones.
Yep, I just saw this as the backdrop of "The Most Wanted’ by Jacquelyn Mitchard (good summer read).
My shortest and longest memorized?
Sometimes when I’m lonely
Don’t know why
Think I might not be lonely
By and by.
-“Hope” by Langston Hughes