My dad could recite in their entirety, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner as well as Gunga Din!.!.!.!.many others, too!. I don't see this practiced any more, why do you think that is!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>Poetry> Why is it that memorizing poetry has become a lost art?Question: Why is it that memorizing poetry has become a lost art!? My dad could recite in their entirety, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner as well as Gunga Din!.!.!.!.many others, too!. I don't see this practiced any more, why do you think that is!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i can't remember my phone numberWww@QuestionHome@Com I don't know how, when, or why it stopped, but I am certain that something grand has been lost, viz!. the appreciation of the musicality of language, the beautiful turn of phrase, the use of rhetorical device and condensed expression to open vistas of meaning!. Learning poems -- really learning them -- improves prose writing as surely as it does the appreciation of verse!. It is a touchstone for all that we can ever hope to become as writers!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I am not sure about this!.!.!.!.although this question does stir some childhood memories of my own!. Between the ages of about 6 and 9, (I went to school in the UK, but I think it would be the equivalent of between 1st and 4th grade in the American school system) we had to recite poems at school on a Friday afternoon!. It is true that not *everybody* recited a poem every week!.!.!.!.but if anyone went about 3 weeks without offering something, the teachers started asking questions!. My parents re-inforced this and encouraged it!.!.!.!.I think that during those years, there were only a handful of occasions when I didn't learn a new poem every week!. This would have been 20 to 25 years ago!.!.!.and *maybe* it is worth pointing out that my teachers for those years were ladies of a certain age!.!.!.!.who have now retired!. I am not sure if my old school continued this!.!.!.!.or for how long!. I am also not sure if it would come as naturally to me now as it seemed to when I was little!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I loved the song of Hiawatha, I have a wretched mind and can no longer recite most of the poems I learned only limericks,, silly ones of course!. I think in reality our kids are being dumbed down in the schools and we as parents and grandparents have to instill that habit now!.!. ooopss not a grandparent a grand aunt!.!. duh!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com You may be right, but the rappers and street beat artists have an amazing ability to carry with them dozens of rants and slams and raps that are as hard and lengthy as a lot of poems!. What a shame there isn't a desire to take past words of worth and carry them on in open forums anymore!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I guess they dont teach poetry anymore in schools!.!.I know i learned my fair share and hated standing up reciting in front of the class!. But now it doesnt phase me to stand up and talk!. Www@QuestionHome@Com We use to have to memorize poems in school and recite them in front of the class!. Maybe it was to traumatizing!! LOL! Don't really know why it's not done today!. nfd?Www@QuestionHome@Com Modern age nobody even knows a phone number anymore because we have became lazy and computers do it all for us!. Www@QuestionHome@Com When I had to do that in school I simply hated it!. When I finally graduated I thought: "I am never going to READ another poem again!.!.!. In my life!"Www@QuestionHome@Com Cell phones damage peoples' memory!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Media, people read less, and aging dampens recall!Www@QuestionHome@Com Because the food at McDonald's contains too much salt!. ( I heard this on FOX News)Www@QuestionHome@Com |