Why do we memorize poems?

THE GRUMPY POET: PART FIVE

WHY DO WE MEMORIZE POEMS?

Because it’s magic.

If I were writing a term paper, here is where I would have to justify the claim that poetry is magic. I’m not writing a term paper, so I guess you’ll have to decide if I’m on the mark or not.

But I’ll let Joseph Campbell have a shot at it:

“If you want to understand poetry, learn it by heart. And you should want to understand poetry. It’s our oldest verbal art form. It can seep through your skin and into your bloodstream, until the rhythms of the past become a part of you. Poetry began as music for the gods, and the good stuff still is.”

Another way to put it: It’s why nursery rhymes stick with us for life.

Here’s a poem for you. Take a shot at memorizing it. Or, perhaps, just one section. It will make your day better.

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

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Jocund. A word I wish was still around

NEXT: One for a Saturday.