# Which poem should I memorize? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899 "2009-01-05T02:58:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/81 "2009-01-08T01:12:23Z")
I see you already have “My Last Duchess,” which was one I was going to recommend. Let me add some that I’ve memorized: - “To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell. For extra credit, add [His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1568.html) by A. D. Hope, one of the wittiest poems I’ve read; - the first section of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; - anything by Auden, especially [Lullaby](http://www.thebeckoning.com/poetry/auden/auden3.html). ---
**Author:** ![greatshakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@greatshakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greatshakes)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/82 "2009-01-08T02:29:33Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I got the urge to memeorize something exactly once, and that [Kubla Khan](http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html). I say go for that! Yea! verily! I did this once, and I had the opportunity to recite at a college where I worked. The semi-literatis were impressed, and the one babe that was there surely paid attention when the phrase ‘demon lover’ was uttered. She remembered my name after that! All in all, it’s worth memorizing-if not to impress, at least to give you goose bumps. Which are fun. greatshakes ---
**Author:** ![greatshakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@greatshakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greatshakes)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/83 "2009-01-08T02:38:02Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > IMHO the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the finest poem ever written in the English language,get that right and you’ll have the audience eating out of your hand. I tried this once; I got about 150 lines memorized. It was BLAMED good, and I’m sorry that I hadn’t totally memorized it. IIRC, it’s about 500 lines. Oh, now I remember why I didn’t memorize it all the way. I looked at the last line of it, and it just took all the fun out of it for me. I didn’t want to invest the extra time for 350 more lines just to end up like that. Strange, it was a fantastic poem, till then. greatshakes ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/84 "2009-01-08T02:58:00Z")
Just about anything by Charles Bukowski. So hard to choose a single one. But here’s a sample: **beer** I don’t know how many bottles of beer I have consumed while waiting for things to get better I dont know how much wine and whisky and beer mostly beer I have consumed after splits with women- waiting for the phone to ring waiting for the sound of footsteps, and the phone to ring waiting for the sounds of footsteps, and the phone never rings until much later and the footsteps never arrive until much later when my stomach is coming up out of my mouth they arrive as fresh as spring flowers: “what the hell have you done to yourself? it will be 3 days before you can fuck me!” the female is durable she lives seven and one half years longer than the male, and she drinks very little beer because she knows its bad for the figure. while we are going mad they are out dancing and laughing with horney cowboys. well, there’s beer sacks and sacks of empty beer bottles and when you pick one up the bottle fall through the wet bottom of the paper sack rolling clanking spilling gray wet ash and stale beer, or the sacks fall over at 4 a.m. in the morning making the only sound in your life. beer rivers and seas of beer the radio singing love songs as the phone remains silent and the walls stand straight up and down and beer is all there is. from: Love is A Dog From Hell, 1977 ---
**Author:** ![KnitWit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/85 "2009-01-08T03:09:53Z")
I have a couple of suggestions! There are a couple of longer ones by Shel Silverstein that are a hoot. They are likely a bit easier than what you’re thinking of tackling, but still fun. Mary Anne McKay (I think that’s the spelling) is one I memorized and recited in school… “I cannot go to school today,” said little Mary Anne McKay, I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash, and purple bumps… and so on. There’s another about Sarah Cinthia Sylvia Stout who would NOT take the garbage out. Terrific! A more adult and serious favorite is “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot. Read it outloud in college and it can be VERY spooky. Also, “Richard Corey” has a terrific grim ending. Again, rather short and simple for you maybe. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/86 "2009-01-08T03:49:03Z")
_The Love Song of Alfred J. Proofrock_ by T.S. Elliot is always a good one to know and you would be surprised how many fellow travellers you will find. \*Howl \*by Alan Ginsberg is interesting too. A lot of great choices listed by others. ---
**Author:** ![Across](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Across](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Across)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/87 "2009-01-08T05:16:21Z")
I have a whole bunch of poems memorised, let me see if I can find links for them all . . . [From A Railway Carriage](http://www.bartleby.com/188/138.html) [Juliet](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/315.html) (a short one) [Sonnet 18](http://www.artofeurope.com/shakespeare/sha3.htm) [The Sick Rose](http://www.online-literature.com/blake/623/) (another short one) [The Poison Tree](http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/A_Poison_Tree.htm) [Holy Sonnet 10](http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15836) [The Flea](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=175764) [Love’s Philosophy](http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/pshelley/bl-pshel-love.htm) [The Night Has a Thousand Eyes](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1240.html) [Corinna in Vendome](http://www.geocities.com/athens/2464/poems16.html) I tend to favour love poetry, with the glaring exception of Death Be Not Proud! Blake’s pretty dark too, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/88 "2009-01-08T05:41:26Z")
[Beowulf](http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/beowulf.html) Listen: You have heard of the Danish Kings in the old days and how they were great warriors. Shield, the son of Sheaf, took many an enemy’s chair, terrified many a warrior, after he was found an orphan. He prospered under the sky until people everywhere listened when he spoke. He was a good king! ---
**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/89 "2009-01-08T14:11:55Z")
> [@BarnOwl](#): > > Whoosh. Nope, sad but true, I thought learning poetry would be fun way to train my memory. My inability to memorise numbers and names is a running joke among my friends and being able to recite a poem would really impress them. ---
**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/90 "2009-01-08T14:17:32Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Some people find it easier to memorize something they hear than something they read, so one thing to try would be to obtain (or make) a recording of someone reciting the poem, and listen to it over and over until it sinks into your memory. “The Raven” shouldn’t be hard to find a recording of; one possible source is the Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episode that featured the poem. > > Setting it to music might also help. I find it easier to memorize songs than poems, and there are literally thousands of songs that I’ve memorized some or all of the lyrics to without even trying, just from hearing them. Thanks for the tip, my sister has most of the Simpson’s on DVD, and maybe someone put out a Mp3 of it on the internet, And music…well you know the guy who always tries to sing with the songs on the radio but always gets the lyrics wrong?..thats me… ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/91 "2009-01-08T17:16:50Z")
I’ll put in a vote for two of my favorite Dickinson poems (punctuation will be a bit off, though): Tell all the truth, but tell it slant Success in circuit lies Too bright for our infirm delight The Truth’s superb surprise Like lightning to the children eased With explanation kind The truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind. But my absolute favorite is this: \*As though I asked a common alms And in my wondering hand A stranger pressed a kingdom And I delighted stand As if I asked the orient Had it for me a morn? And it should lift its purple dykes And shatter me with dawn.\* ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/92 "2009-01-08T22:28:25Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > I hope that you will try Yeats! These three are short, but show different moods: > > [Easter, 1916](http://classweb.gmu.edu/rnanian/Yeats-Easter1916.html) > > [When You Are Old](http://www.bartleby.com/101/863.html) > > [The Lake Isle of Innisfree](http://www.bartleby.com/103/44.html) Another vote for Yeats! I memorized “Easter 1916” for a class. What a rush! > [@Lust4Life](#): > > IMHO the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the finest poem ever written in the English language,get that right and you’ll have the audience eating out of your hand. Or you could try this condensed version: _'Twas a mariner ancient said, “Say, Stick around, lad, and list to me lay: Shot a bird for a joke, Saw me shipmates all croak, Now I give to the SPCA.”_ Some wonderful, longish, lesser-known poems of Robert Frost that I strongly recommend: [Maple](http://books.google.com/books?id=sm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA52&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0) [Directive](http://hjem.get2net.dk/abra-ken/Frost1.htm) ---
**Author:** ![sillygoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@sillygoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sillygoose)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/93 "2009-01-09T01:25:12Z")
For fun open mike purposes, anything by [Taylor Mali](http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=5). Perhaps “How to write a political poem”. I second the Kubla Khan suggestion. “Imagine the Angles of Bread” Martin Espada “The Fury of Sundays” by Anne Sexton. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/94 "2009-01-09T04:00:07Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > I see you like the more positive of A. E. Housman’s works. 😉 > > I’m far more partial to _[Is my team ploughing](http://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/alfrededwardhousman/poems/ashropshirelad/ismyteamploughing.html)_. To be honest, that’s the only one I had ever seen. I ran across it when bored in English class and started browsing the textbook; far more productive than actually paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![lizbetann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc29f/32.png) [@lizbetann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizbetann)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/95 "2009-01-09T04:43:57Z")
“An Overworked Elocutionist” by Carolyn Wells \*Once there was a little boy whose name was Robert Reese, And every Friday afternoon he had to speak a piece. So many poems this he learned,that soon he had a store Of recitations in his head and still kept learning more. And now this is what happened: He was called upon one week And totally forgot the piece he was about to speak. His brain he cudgeled.Not a word remained within his head And so he spoke at random, and this is what he said:\* O beautiful, o beautiful, who standest proudly by, It is the schooner Hesperus–the breaking waves dashed high. Why is this forum crowded? What means this stir in Rome? Under a spreading chestnut tree, there is no place like home. When freedom from her mountain aerie cried, “Twinkle, twinkle little star!” Shoot if you must this old grey head, King Henry of Navarre, Roll on, thou deep and dark blue castled crag of Drachenfels. My name is Norval, of the Grampian Hills; ring out, wild bells If you’re waking, call me early, to be or not to be. The curfew must not ring tonight, Oh,woodman, spare that tree! Charge, Chester, charge! On Stanley, on and let who will be clever. The boy stood on the burning deck, but I’ll go on forever. _His elocution was superb, his voice and gestures fine His school-mates all applauded as he finished the last line. “I see it doesn’t matter,” Robert thought, "What words I say, “As long as I declaim with an oratorical display.”_ The fun was learning that at about 6 years old, and spending the rest of your life going, “OH! That poem!” when I run into the lines in situ, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![Across](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Across](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Across)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/96 "2009-01-09T04:52:53Z")
Ooh, the “mountain aerie” line reminded me of [Tennyson](http://www.englishverse.com/poems/the_eagle). ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/97 "2009-01-09T14:34:39Z")
Wow, you guys know and recommend a lot of wonderful poetry. I used to recite Jabberwocky to my infant daughter, it seemed to calm her from crying. How about Poe’s “The Bells” or Longfellow’s “Excelsior”. I enjoy the rhythm of most Kipling. Ecclesiastes (from the bible) was origally spoken, I believe as a sermon, it supposedely takes about 40 minutes to read. It has a lot of wonderful moments in addition to some great theology. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/98 "2009-01-09T17:55:45Z")
> [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](#): > > So here’s my challenge to you, The Dope: _which poem should I memorize?_ Two things to consider: > > 1. I like narrative. > 2. I might like to recite the poem at an open mic. Try Chesterton’s [“Lepanto.”](http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/lepanto.htm) Or pretty much anything by Kipling. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/99 "2009-01-09T18:14:48Z")
[“You Are Old, Father William”](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/You_Are_Old,_Father_William) by Lewis Carroll would be a hit in performance. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899/100 "2009-01-09T18:18:22Z")
Gunga Din is a great poem to say out loud. The beat ,the drive and the build up are terrific. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-poem-should-i-memorize/479899.md?page=6)