May 10 2008
The Best Poems of the English Language
The Best Poems of the English Language
I always have a book of poetry by my bed. Ok, yes, that me seem a completely prop, a ruse.
But, I swear, it’s not.
In college, my teacher challenged me to memorize 10 poems of substantial length. If I did, I would get no lower than a B. Perfect, I thought, I will do this and nothing else. I’m comfortable with a B. I’m an English major after all, who cares what my grade point will be when I graduate?
I memorized the 10 poems and it was not easy, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. I gained a much greater understanding of each poem and poetry in general.
Poems comment on the poetry of life (Ayn Rand might not like them-they’re so unreasonable). Love, Celebration, Jealousy, Depression-poetry is filled with all types of emotion.
In later years, this contributed greatly to my thoughts on Active Learning, which I write about in my post Learning Spanish-Spanish Verbs. Until you can say something out loud (without reference to a book), you don’t know it. As a trainer for many years, I employed this concept.
Knowing poetry may also assist you in other life endeavors. If you throw out a poem, it arouses curiosity. Where did that come from?
Several years back, I had a “visitor’ in my apartment. As many girls do, she was analyzing me by the contents in my bedroom. She saw the poetry book and immediately said:
“Oh my God, what a prop!”
“No, no, I said, I really enjoy poetry”
“Really? Name one poem in this book.”
“Not only can I do that, I can recite a poem from that book.”
“Really, which one?”
“Pick one.”
“Nuh-huh!”
I was taking a gamble by saying Pick One, knowing that I could only recite about 20% of the poems. But I’m a gambler by nature and she was already at my place.
“This one,” she said.
I began, ” Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a-flying…”
We had a great night and an even better morning 
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