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How to Possess a Poem by Memory (Patreon)

Published:
2022-08-31 16:40:24
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

"When you have a poem by heart, you possess it more truly and more strangely than you do your dwelling place, because the poem possesses you." - Harold Bloom

You are never alone when you recall and recite your favourite poems. They soothe and comfort, instruct and advise, allow us to better know and love ourselves, and, ultimately, augment life.

Today I would like to share with you the ways I approach memorising great poetry.

We're talking about acquisition vs learning, rote memorisation vs reading for pleasure, poetry as divine experience, reading as falling in love, how to identify resonant poems, inevitability, self-otherseeing, and much more.

Audio Timestamps

  • 0:00 poetry as light in the darkness
  • 4:00 my first experiences with literature
  • 7:00 how to communicate the power of poetry?
  • 8:00 Harold Bloom & possession by memory
  • 14:00 tones you heard before your world was made
  • 15:22 why possess a poem by memory?
  • 17:00 acquisition vs learning (& affective filter)
  • 18:30 on becoming part of the tribe
  • 20:00 rote memorisation vs reading for pleasure
  • 22:53 your poems choose you
  • 25:40 poetry appreciation is falling in love
  • 27:40 what makes a poem resonant?
  • 29:10 poems as celebrations of love
  • 30:00 finding your rhythm
  • 31:40 memorising epics, plays & novels
  • 35:00 great poetry grows with you
  • 38:00 how to identify meaningful poems
  • 42:30 self-otherseeing in great literature
  • 46:50 the inevitability of great poetry
  • 48:00 on memorising ballads
  • 48:45 a visual story memory technique
  • 52:00 poems I’m currently memorising
  • 55:40 the act of recalling a poem
  • 57:30 befriending our inner voice
  • 1:00:00 poetry as life-force

Questions for You:

1) Which poems are most meaningful to you? What would you like to possess by memory?

2) What has been your personal experience with poetry? 

3) What has been your personal experience with memorisation?

Happy reading, everybody!

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Comments

Aaron Kyereh-Mireku

A poem I'd like to possess from memory is Emily Bronte's No coward soul is mine. A very powerful poem. Very Emersonian too!

Scott W

I've started trying to memorise, or rather possess, poems that speak to me since joining HLBC. I started with Heaney's 'Digging', a relatively short poem that means a lot to me, and then moved onto Shakespeare's 'To Be Or Not To Be' monologue, down to 'lose the name of action'. It has been a pleasure to be able to recite these to myself when driving or walking somewhere, or laying in bed in the dark.. I am now working on Tennyson's 'Ulysses', a wonderful poem that speaks to me so much in the onset of middle age and fatherhood. The one thing I would say to anyone who would like to try to possess a poem in this way is that while it may seem difficult at first, and a poem may seem very long to remember word for word.. you do reach a point when you have 'possessed' it, rather than just remembered it, and it just becomes so easy to remember, because you have understood and taken on board the meaning of every line. When you get here, it's easy.. and that's why I think Ben's choice of the word 'possess' is so, so relevant. Remembering something that doesn't mean that much to you is difficult (and arguably pointless), but possessing something that holds meaning for you, becomes easy at a point.. after a little work. Surprisingly so.. I distinctly remember feeling lost in Hamlet's monologue, like it was so, so long with so many things to remember, what order things came in, and so on.. but as the poem took on more and more meaning for me, it became easier and easier. It really is very surprising! :)