Memorize 10 poems

typed from memory :)

Advice To A Girl by Sara Teasdale
no one worth possessing
can be quite possessed
lay that on your heart
my young angry dear
this truth, this hard and precious stone
lay it on your hot cheek
let it hide your tear
hold it like a crystal
when you are alone
gaze into the depths of the icy stone
long, look long and you will be blessed
no one worth possessing
can be quite possessed.

Remember by Christina Rossetti
Remember me when I am gone away
gone far away into the silent land
when you can no more hold my hand
nor I half turn to go yet turning stay (love that line!)
remember me when no more day by day
you tell me of our future you had plann’d
only remember; you understand
that it will be too late to counsel then or pray
yet if you should forget me for a while
and afterwards remember, do not grieve
for if the darkness and corruption leave
a vestige of thoughts that I once had
it is better by far that you forget and smile
than that you should remember and be sad

Today I rediscovered some poems I have enjoyed the past few months and here is a list of a few I’d like to memorize in the coming weeks-

“Remember” Christina Rossetti
“If” Rudyard Kipling
“The Old Familiar Faces” Charles Lamb
“Not Waving But Drowing” Stevie Smith
“Advice To A Girl” Sara Teasdale (She also ROCKS)
“I Am In Need Of Music” Elizabeth Bishop

Ella Wheeler Wilcox is the bomb-
“Solitude” ...this one’s semi-memorized
“As You Go Through Life”
“A Maiden’s Secret”
“Platonic”

and ALL these Sara Teasdale poems are soo good:
“After Love”
“Alone”
“Buried Love”
“Did You Never Know?”
“Enough”
“I Am Not Yours”
“I Shall Not Care”
“It Will Not Change”

ok wow that’s a lot…. I’ll start with “Solitude” and go from there I guess…

1. To the Desert
2. Scouts of Halla
3. Gypsy Song
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

My love came back to me
Under the November tree
Shelterless and dim.
He put his hand upon my shoulder,
He did not think me strange or older,
Nor I him.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

although there is a second version of the poem with a few extra lines that I do not know…

Never seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind doth move
Silently, invisibly.
I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
Ah! she did depart!

Soon after she was gone from me,
A traveller came by,
Silently, invisibly:
He took her with a sigh.

I have now officially memorized The Raven. I’m going to work on my “Memorize 100 Chapters of the Bible” goal for a little while before I come back to this one and start on Paul Revere’s Ride.

I know 12 of the 18 stanzas!

Seriously, people, this is a really easy poem to memorize. It takes me about ten minutes to memorize three stanzas, and then I review everything I know throughout the day, and when I feel like I’m ready, I take ten minutes and memorize three more stanzas. I quote at work and in the shower and before I go to bed and as I eat and whenever I think of it. I should be done with this by the end of this coming week.

I can quote half of The Raven!

(haha, that’s a pun, get it? Quote? Quote the Raven? Haha!)

Today I started memorizing The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Wow, it’s just fun. His rhythmic and rhyming schemes make it a joy to memorize. I had started memorizing it once a few years ago, so I was already a little familiar with the first few stanzas. I have the first six stanzas memorized as of today. So far I’m not setting down any time-specific goals on this poem. I just want to have fun with it.

There are eighteen stanzas. I’m 1/3 of the way done! Woohoo!