memorize one of my favorite poems

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 leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but 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.

i’ve decided to go with my favorite poem of all time:

RESURRECTION by Margaret Atwood

I see now I see
now I cannot see

earth is a blizzard in my eyes

I hear now

the rustle of the snow

the angels listening above me

thistles bright with sleet
gathering

waiting for the time
to reach me
up to the pillared
sun, the final city

or living towers

unrisen yet
whose dormant stones lie folding
their holy fire around me

(but the land shifts with frost
and those who have become the stone
voices of the land
shift also and say

god is not
the voice in the whirlwind

god is the whirlwind

at the last
judgement we will all be trees

Reciting poetry to someone from memory is such a 19th century thing to do. If you love a poem and you memorize it, you will always have it with you.

I was the second coming of Edna St. Vincent Millay in high school. I wrote a ton of poetry, and she was by far my biggest influence and idol. I memorized “Renascence” for a dramatic reading competition and won second place with it. Her poetry is so romantic and tragic. When I look back over the poems I wrote in high school, especially to a classmate I was smitten for, it’s almost funny to me now how much they remind of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s work. But “Renascence” was received incredibly well, and she wrote it when she was only 17! That’s pretty cool.