View original postLet's say you're having a discussion about a certain topic, and someone cites one of your favorite poems and you think it's really cool, and you repeat the relevant verses. The people you are talking with ask about more, so you say a bunch more from the poem. They seem to agree with your opinion about the poem, and that's all good. Then, later that day in the evening, with a bigger group of people, one of the people you spoke with earlier asks you to tell the others about the poem, implying that he has already mentioned it to them. So you do, except they make comments which imply (in hindsight, because you're not very good at social cues) the ACTUAL point of interest for everyone else is not the poem or the sentiments which it conveys, but the freak who is able to quote it.

View original postPoems rhyme. They have a pattern to their structure. These things make them easier to remember, and they tend to engage the brain more by the cleverness of the writer in making what he says fit the structure, pattern and rhyme scheme. This is why they teach little kids things with songs and poems, and why a lot of mnemonic devices rely on rhymes. When you read a poem enough to have it by heart, you have the advantage of being able to enjoy it at any time. As a mental accomplishment, it doesn't any more significant than learning a song. The most pointed personal comment of the aforementioned incident, comes from a one-time theater student who put on someone else's clothing to recite extensively memorized literature! How is that less weird and more socially acceptable than tossing off a few lines of Kipling?

View original postThis community is the most generally literate group of people I know, so I want to ask, can you recall or recite several poems? I am not talking about like epic ballads, just things generally longer than limericks, or big chunks of very long poems.