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 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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
I have a whole bunch of poems memorised, let me see if I can find links for them all . . .
Juliet (a short one)
The Sick Rose (another short one)
I tend to favour love poetry, with the glaring exception of Death Be Not Proud! Blake’s pretty dark too, I guess.
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!
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.
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…
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.*
Another vote for Yeats! I memorized “Easter 1916” for a class. What a rush!
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:
For fun open mike purposes, anything by Taylor Mali. 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.
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.
“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.
Ooh, the “mountain aerie” line reminded me of Tennyson.
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.
Try Chesterton’s “Lepanto.”
Or pretty much anything by Kipling.
“You Are Old, Father William” by Lewis Carroll would be a hit in performance.
Gunga Din is a great poem to say out loud. The beat ,the drive and the build up are terrific.