Four Quotes to Consider

“All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie.” — W. H. Auden



“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” —  Robert Frost

“I don't think we really have very much to tell poems; I think poems have a great deal to tell us.” — Marie Howe 

“These stories emerged from my black insides to die in another darkenss. I willed their existence, but I don’t know why. Except that in some dim way I wanted, myself, to have a soul, a special speech, a style. I wanted to be responsible where I could bear to be responsible…” 

— William Gass

Why Not Memorize a Poem?

The other day I wrote about memorization. It's lovely to have poems in your memory bank, just as you keep song lyrics there. Poems provide a meditation, something better to think about than whatever is troubling you, a new way to reflect on an issue.

Here's the Robert Frost poem my student has been committing to memory for the past several days. I've been saying it a lot lately as I drive around town:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

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.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lak4
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Previous post - why memorize a poem?

Why memorize a poem?

Gorgeous photo, huh?
This would be a good place to work on memorizing - or writing - a new poem.

Thanks to www.anewenglandlife.com for capturing the moment.

I tutor English several hours a week, working with students returning to college aftr a long hiatus, ESL students, or students with learning disabilities. Sometimes, with all three combined.

Many, though not all, of the students I work with are in developmental classes or first-level college English. Their projects often intrigue me, perhaps because I never mind going back to the basics.

A few days ago, one of my "regulars" came in with the assignment to learn Robert Frost's most famous poem by heart. We had 30 minutes.

I wasn't sure she could do it. But we started. She referred to the poem as "Stopping by THE woods on a Snowy Evening." For some reason, she needed to state that article until I asked her which woods, exactly, she was referring to.

Moving on to the poem itself, I recited a line, and she told it back to me. It went along like this until she had it at least partly cemented in her memory.

Where she got stuck, I prompted her - not just with Frost's words but with his intent. We broke off from memorizing a few times to talk about the meaning of the poem. Lines she said she loved, she hadn't really thought about. She was taken with the rhythm, the rhyme, the pretty picture they seemed to convey.

When she understood more of the background of Frost, why he'd written the poem, what he meant or might have meant, she started to find it easier to memorize. We agreed that she needed to emphasize certain words, that she couldn't just throw off that second "and miles to go before I sleep."

That line means something, and what she did with her tone and inflection as she recited it would change how the poem came across to her audience.

Next post - More on the poem and memorization