27 Comments on What do you know by heart?

Martin Robinson on Fri, 31st Jul 2009 11:51 pm


In Alan Bennett’s the History Boys, the boys are told by Hector, as they learn to recite, that its not about understanding the meaning of poetry but about waiting until the right moment occurs and the meaning becomes clear – “But learn it now, know it now and you will understand it… whenever.”

So altogether:

In Xanadu did K….

Christine on Sat, 1st Aug 2009 12:57 am


I smile as I read your newest insight, Matthew, and laugh at the part where you say the lines rhyme. Poetry is, I find an intellectual method of exhaust from critical analytical thinking, endeavouring a channel between the brain and the heart which gives it life.

May I also suggest on your holiday, (a place which I have never seen nor experienced), any sensory experience, as well. Your speaking of the matters of the heart can certainly be helped by connecting with physical sensory perception. It is something that I try to do when exploring a new place – although I do my best not to analyse at the point of experience.

Andrew on Sat, 1st Aug 2009 10:36 am


Matthew, if you’re on holiday you may not be able to get this but I recommend the brilliant if idiosyncractic lecture on poetry ‘Wallflowers’, by the late lamented Michael Donaghy. It has recently been reprinted in The Shape of the Dance by Picador.

Donaghy was a brilliant American poet living in north London who was a notable performer of his own work, reading it from memory. Wallflowers explores his interest in poetry and mnemonics – it might go some way to explaining why you think it is a good thing to learn things by heart.

Judith on Sat, 1st Aug 2009 7:45 pm


It never ceases to amaze that Tudor education was nearly all memory learning ..we seem to have lost the art, if not the ability. You could have a go at a few of Shakespeare’s more memorable speeches or sonnets, or if you really fancy Yeats, “He wishes for the cloths of heaven” is a peach. Enjoy.

Marbury on Sun, 2nd Aug 2009 8:48 am


I think it’s an excellent thing to do. I started a few years ago. I’m not sure why but it’s a great comfort know that, somewhere in the vast sea of gas bills and news stories and pasta recipes floating around my head, there are a few things of crystalline beauty and wisdom. And isn’t “learn by heart” a lovely, suggestive phrase?

As for Yeats – how about An Irish Airman Foresees His Death?

Andrew on Sun, 2nd Aug 2009 10:19 pm


further to this, on Yeats might I recommend Who Goes With Fergus? as a good one to learn by heart.

it has added literary cred because it is the poem that haunts Stephen Dedalus in Joyce’s Ulysses but beyond that is a great poem to read aloud.

TimHood on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 7:38 am


Matthew,

Kazantzakis, a local, has a few good lines, although his poetry is barely distinguishable from his prose sometimes…

A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free.

or

But the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, ‘Away! Let go of the earth, walk!’
It shouted in this way for thousands of eons; and lo, as a result of desire and struggle, life escaped the motionless tree and was liberated….

Jenny on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 9:23 am


Try The Second Coming by Yeats – you probably sort of know most of it anyway, and its satisfyingly chilling. I must have said it to myself 100s of times and it can still make the hairs on my arms stand up.

Same goes for The General by Sassoon: only 7 rhyming lines, but extremely satisfying to mutter to yourself whenever you’re feeling anti-authoritarian.

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 9:53 am


Ok Jenny that’s just what I will do. Although whether a chief executive should admit ‘the centre cannot hold’ I’m not sure!

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 9:56 am


Thanks Tim. I had never heard of Kaz but now – thanks to wikipedia – I am fascinated. Great tip

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 9:57 am


Thanks Andrew – interesting how many people recommend Yeats. I think I’ll go with ‘the second coming’ now I’ve just about got my Auden down pat

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 10:00 am


Thanks Ian (?). I’m with you on Yeats but Jenny has persuaded me to go with the second coming

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 10:01 am


Thanks Judith. I toyed with Shakespeare (I’ve got a start on some stuff – like the balcony scene from R and J). He may be next after Yeats.

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 10:03 am


Thanks Andrew – I have a slow connection and no printer so I’ll save this treat for my return

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 10:05 am


Thanks Christine. Does running count? I love running in new places. Although it is so hot heere and I get up too late so I can’t go far. This morning I was half dead by the time I finished my 5k

matthewtaylor on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 10:07 am


Ah yes. The ‘learn it then understand it versus understand it then learn it’ is one of those great old educational false dichotomies – which is to say both are right at different times. Thanks for the comment

Joe Nutt on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 10:11 am


I am here Matthew (though bound myself for sunnier climes shortly!) It’s no accident that rote learning is so often associated with poetry. Poetry is “difficult” to use George Steiner’s term, arguably the most difficult form of language use we ever face and memorising it really does help ease some of that difficulty. It allows you to replay it at will.

But it’s also about sound. No decent teacher would ever teach any poem without reading it aloud, or getting someone else to read it aloud first. Memorising allows you to perform it well and because poetry is such an economic, compressed art form, it also means you can’t escape having to engage with its complexity and with luck, beauty.

Why wouldn’t anyone not want to know this chunk of Hopkins from “The Sea and the Skylark” off by heart.

Left hand, off land, I hear the lark ascend,
His rash-fresh re-winded new-skeinèd score
In crisps of curl off wild winch whirl, and pour
And pelt music till none’s to spill nor spend.

Jenny is spot on when it comes to having them to hand for the right occasion and hilariously, I too know “The General” off by heart for much the same reason!

From the sublime to the ridiculous : Matthew Taylor’s blog on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 11:31 am


[...] really enjoyed the comments on my last post. I have just about memorised all 15 versus of the Auden, so on the recommendation of Jenny [...]

Jenny on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 12:22 pm


Joe that IS hilarious.

Another good Yeats is ‘An Irish Airmen forsees his death’ as suggested above – sorry Matthew this one DOES rhyme. I love:

I balanced all
brought all to mind
the years to come seemed waste of breath
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death

Oops, goosebumps at work!

Lopa Patel on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 1:33 pm


Matthew,

Your post made me smile. Made a mental note of what I remember by heart:
1. The Lord’s Prayer (in English)
2. The Owl & The Pussycat
3. W H Davies ‘What is this life if, full of care…”
4. W H Auden ‘Stop All the Clocks…’
5. John Keats “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” (Ode to Autumn)

And yes, was made to memorise these at school! I’m rubbish at memorising Shakespeare so try to remember opening lines of books instead. And as for ‘ The Brothers Karamazov’ – give yourself a break, you’re on holiday! Try ‘War & Peace’ instead!

carl allen on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 8:55 pm


Spend ten days in solitary confinement and find out what you know by heart.

matthewtaylor on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 7:30 am


Very good Lopa. Of course, what I don’t mention in my blog is that I know several football songs off by heart. But none of them are repeatable.

Emily Campbell on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 9:15 am


The only Stevie Smith I know off by heart might be worth considering on the beach in Crete: “This Englishwoman is so refined/She has no bosom and no behind”. Except that was before Obesity. Why would you bother with Yeats when there’s Milton and Tennyson? Wish I could remember the name of the 19th century traveller who notoriously whiled away at least 24 hours waiting for a weatherstruck Mediterranean ferry reciting the whole of Paradise Lost.

Lopa Patel on Tue, 4th Aug 2009 11:07 am


Matthew,

Re: Football songs of by heart. Of course, the brain naturally remembers unrepeatable things like naughty limericks, dirty song lyrics and secrets!

I do think you’ve raised an important issue about Learning by Rote and its importance in Creativity though.

Modern educational methods reject rote-learning as it might crush ‘creativity’, but Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘The Story of Success’ examines the secrets of success in various fields and claims creativity (the spark of genius) comes from 10,000 hours of practice! So perhaps rote-learning has a very important part to play in creativity?

I find it maddening that primary school children are not taught essay planning (presumably because it might lead to boring essays) and are then expected to write like Shakespeare when it comes to exams!! How can you break the rules, unless you know what these rules are in the first place?

As someone who has benefited from an British overseas education (where rote learning played a big part), I think UK Plc’s creativity is in very great danger of being completely submerged under this new liberal wishy-washy curriculum. Britain is amazing in the Arts, particularly film and theatre (where rote learning
plays a major part), but less so in maths, technology and science. Perhaps going back to learning the basics by rote might reverse this trend?

Sorry, seem to have gone off on a complete tangent.

Fourcultures on Thu, 6th Aug 2009 11:20 pm


I’ve thought about this here.

matthewtaylor on Sat, 8th Aug 2009 9:06 am


Great post – interesting that we picked on the same question. Hope you don’t think I am plagiarising?

Margaret Ounsley on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 8:58 am


Surely anybody who has ever had anything to do with politics should be memorising the earlier Yeats poems, an object lesson in how all political movements can produce disillusion and contempt

“what need you being come to sense
but add the half-pence to the pence
and prayer to shivering prayer until
you’ve chilled the marrow from the bone?
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone
Its with O’Leary in the grave”

(if memory serves)

and the most concise comment on the nature of fanaticism

“too long a sacrifice makes a stone of the heart”

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