This summer, my friend and I went to Canada during the Three Weeks, so no music in the car. Instead, we talked a lot (obviously), and sang, and listened to a shiur. About a third of the way home, we hit on another form of entertainment to keep ourselves alert: reciting all the poems we knew by heart. Now, don’t laugh. This was fun, especially when my friend launched into a series of Ogden Nash poems we had to use as typing practice in seventh grade. And I can recite all the Harry Potter Sorting songs (and have been waiting for an opportunity to tell you, obviously 🙂 ). So that’s one way to pass the time on a long car ride.
I started memorizing poems for fun in junior high. My first were “Jabberwocky” from Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll, and “The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus (part of this poem is on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty). Next was “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. Later on, I did “All That is Gold” from The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien (which indeed I have not read).
Recently I was helping a friend empty out some rooms in her house, and we came across an old yearbook from a class her mother taught. As I flipped through it, a poem caught my eye: “This Bridge,” by Shel Silverstein. And on the spot, I memorized it. It’s perfect.
Do you know any poems by heart?
