Poetry Memorization Challenge for National Poetry Month 2019

[Josh (Josh Cohen)]

For anyone who isn’t sure where to start, here are a few ideas that you could choose from.

The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Here’s a short one that won’t take long:

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands. 

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls, 
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Stopping by the Woods One Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Memorize Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

This is a challenge to memorize Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. To join me in this memory challenge, leave a comment below. It’s the one that starts like this: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

To Autumn by John Keats

Memorize the Poem, To Autumn, by John Keats

I’m currently working on memorizing Keats’ To Autumn. The text of the poem is here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23684/23684-h/23684-h.htm#Page_137 Read more about the poem here: Critical and scholarly praise has been unanimous in declaring "To Autumn" one of the most perfect poems in the English language. A.C. Swinburne placed it with "Ode on a Grecian Urn" as "the nearest to absolute perfection" of Keats's odes; Aileen Ward declared it "Keats's most perfect and untroubled poem"; and Do…

Ozymandias by Percy Shelly

Memorize the Poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the forum, cvstewart mentioned memorizing the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. I think it would make a good memory challenge. Here is the poem: OZYMANDIAS I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, T…

More Poems

There are many other ideas in the links below:

Lists of Poems to Memorize

Ideas for poems to memorize

Are there any poetry memorizers here? I thought we could compile a list of poems that people could use to for memorization ideas. Add your favorites in the comments. The book, 101 Poems to Remember, edited by Ted Hughes, has a list that might make a good starting point: A. E. Housman: ‘On Wenlock Edge’ Alexander Pope: From An Epistle To Dr Arbuthnot Alfred, Lord Tennyson: The Eagle Andrew Young: Field Glasses Anonymous: Donal Og Anonymous: Mad Tom’s Song D. H. Lawrence: Piano Dylan Thomas: A …