Ars poetica...

[fajrdrako]

I'm memorizing a poem for the first time in years.

We were talking about it on one of the Tolkien mailing lists, and comparing which of Tolkien's poems we had memorized. It made me realize how long it has been since I memorized anything - for decades I've amused myself with what I'd already memorized, going over it time and again, forgetting and half-forgetting things. I think I stopped deliberately memorizing poetry when I tried a Wallace Stevens sonnet that utterly defeated me. Faugh. It was good, too.

But now I've started again, with an easy one: the song Frodo sings at the Sign of the Prancing Pony, that starts:

There is an inn, a merry old inn,
beneath an old grey hill,
and there they brew a beer so brown
the man in the moon himself came down
one night to drink his fill.

It's fun. If this works, I'll try another. And maybe eventually conquer that elusive Wallace Stevens poem.

Comments

[brancher.livejournal.com]

I find that memorizing poetry is easy provided the poem was meant to be memorized. Shakespeare, Beowulf, even Poe: all of it is written with hooks on, to stick in your mind.

Once you leave behind oral cultures, and move to an era where poetry is written to be read on the page, it becomes much more difficult. Especially as forms are abandoned. Did you hear about that professor who has memorized all of Milton's Paradise Lost? Now that is difficult.

But it's great having the poem in your head; I like to take mine out and recite them once in a while to keep them fresh, especially at the top of my lungs while hiking in the woods.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I find that memorizing poetry is easy provided the poem was meant to be memorized.

Yes, it makes a huge difference. I'd managed to learn some T.S. Eliot, which was why I ambitiously thought I could master Wallace Stevens. I was wrong! I remember having trouble with Amy Lowell, too. Didn't learn Beowulf (except the first word) but did a few Anglo-Saxon poems, my favourites being "Where is the horse? Where the rider? Where the treasure-giving prince?" which Tolkien adapted for The Lord of the Rings and put in Theoden's mouth, and Tennyson's rendering of The Battle of Brunanburh, which I put up on a web page somewhere just because I love it so much.

Did you hear about that professor who has memorized all of Milton's Paradise Lost? Now that is difficult.

That is impressive! Obviously he has a retentive mind. And also has trained himself to it, which makes a big difference. Practice.

I like to take mine out and recite them once in a while to keep them fresh, especially at the top of my lungs while hiking in the woods.

That's the best way to do it - out loud. I like to recite things at bus stops. I try to do it silently, but sometimes find myself subvocalizing.

So what poets/poems are in your repertoire?

[brancher.livejournal.com]

Several Robert Frost;
a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Another by Shakespeare;
Several Shakespeare speeches, from Richard 3, Much Ado, and Midsummer night's Dream;
and the first 30 lines of Beowulf (in Anglo-Saxon.)

I'd like to add more Beowulf, but reciting Anglo-Saxon is a something no one wants to listen to.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Several Robert Frost;

I know one frost - "I have been one acquainted with the night".

a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Cool! I don't know her poetry well and haven't memorized any but I find her fascinating. Beautiful, clever and bi.... and writes good poetry too. My role model! (One of them.)

Several Shakespeare speeches,

Yeah. I got some of those because of school, some because I loved them.

from Richard 3,

I learned "Let's talk of worms, of graves and epitaphs" because Shelley had it memorized and used to recite it and I figured (at the age of 14 or so) that if it was good enough for Shelley it was good enough for me.

Much Ado, and Midsummer night's Dream;

Wonderful! I love those plays, but don't know passages from them, except bits of dialogue. ("Kill Claudio!" "Hah! Not for the wide world.")

and the first 30 lines of Beowulf (in Anglo-Saxon.)

Now that is *very* cool. I knew the "where is the horse now?" poem in Anglo-Saxon, but don't know the language, so it was like nonsense syllables and tho' I remember a lot of it I'm probably mangling the words.

I'd like to add more Beowulf, but reciting Anglo-Saxon is a something no one wants to listen to.

I do! I do! At the Tolkien Gathering in Toronto, one of the speakers recited some of Beowulf and I loved it. I like the sound of Anglo-Saxon.

[brancher.livejournal.com]

Generally people are smiling and interested for the first ten lines, slightly less enthralled for the next ten, and try to interrupt during the last ten. But it's a very dramatic passage, and I love to recite it.
My knowledge of A-S is academic, not fluent, but it's easy to remember the gist of the words as I say them.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I am so tempted to study Anglo-Saxon. Maybe they have a night course at Ottawa U? I could study it by myself, but that tends to be tedious. I'd love to be able to read Beowulf in the original. Not to mention the Chronicle, Alfred the Great, and so on.

Maybe I'll make plans to perfect my Esperanto this year, and study Anglo-Saxon next year. That would be fun! I wonder if they've translated Beowulf.... must have, long since.

Meanwhile "There is an inn" is going well, sort of half-memoried now and going strong. That is, I have the first five stanzas down pat, the next two or three are iffy, and I've yet to memorize the last five or six. But I'm getting there. Hope to have it all memorized by Sunday at the latest.

[brancher.livejournal.com]

Get yourself a copy of "Beowulf: an edition" by Mitchell and Robinson. It has the poem and a glossary; it's not too difficult to work through it yourself. Do a word-for-word translation, don't worry about the grammatical forms, and remember that the subject or object of a sentence may be several half-lines away from each other, and you should be able to parse out the meaning.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have the Mitchell and Robinson edition on order at the library, so I'll give it a try.

[brancher.livejournal.com]

Good luck! It's a fun thing to do in cafes. People come over to see what you are doing, and it's a good filter: the ones who are interested are the ones you want to talk to, while it scares away most of the rest.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like the way you think. Okay, I'll try it!

[(Anonymous)]

Check out

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2003/10/tolkien_coma.html

:-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2003/10/tolkien_coma.html

That's me - about to lapse into a coma! (Muttering about cows and spoons all the while, I'm sure.)