Long poetry memorization for upper elementary age

[lulalu]

I was looking at Memoria Press, and see that in 6th (I think) they offer memorizing Horatius at the Bridge. It looks like you can get a medal as well. 

This has me thinking about adding a longer poem to memorize instead of many shorter ones. Does anyone do a longer poem? How has that worked out for your kids? My DS is 9, he does a lot of Scripture memory work. 

We are doing American History this year. So I was thinking it might be good to try Paul Revere's Ride. But I feel that would be too long in its entirety, so maybe I would need to just pick part of it. 

Any been there done that advice or thoughts? Are there benefits to learning a longer poem over several shorter ones? 

[cintinative]

We own the Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization product from IEW.  I had great aspirations for us to do this, but we got bogged down on Level 2 because we couldn't devote more than a couple days a week to it. It really needs practice every day.   In the lower levels, the kids would practice one stanza at a time until they had it down, then add another one.  ETA: this curriculum has a mix of short and long poems, probably to provide that sense of accomplishment that can be needed in  a project this large.

The higher levels of it are poems and speeches. For example, this is Level 4 poems:

1. The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet
by Guy Wetmore Carryl 93
2. The Tiger by William Blake 94
3. Metaphysics by Oliver Herford 95
4. Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott 96
5. The Choir Invisible by George Eliot 98
6. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World
by William Ross Wallace 99
7. The Maldive Shark by Herman Melville 100
8. The Quality of Mercy by William Shakespeare 101
9. In Flanders Fields by Dr. John McCrae 102
10. Epigram by Samuel Coleridge 103
11. God Save the Flag by Oliver Wendell Holmes 104
12. The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven
by Guy Wetmore Carryl 105
13. A Song from the Suds by Louisa May Alcott 106
14. The Hen by Oliver Herford 107
15. Desiderata by Max Ehrmann 108
16. Woodman, Spare that Tree! by George P. Morris 109
17. Grand Chorus by John Dryden 110
18. An Overworked Elocutionist by Carolyn Wells 111
19. The Hunting of the Dragon by G.K. Chesterton 112

 

 This is Level 5, which is speeches:

1 Socrates’ Apology by Plato
2 First Oration Against Catiline by Cicero
3 On the Eve of the Battle with the Spanish Armada by Elizabeth I
4 St. Crispin’s Day Speech by William Shakespeare
5 Friends, Romans, Countrymen by William Shakespeare
6 Give Me Liberty by Patrick Henry
7 Declaration of Independence Excerpt
8 Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America
9 1789 Abolition Speech by William Wilberforce
10 What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass
11 Opening Lines of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
12 The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
13 Address at a Gathering of Americans in London, July 4, 1872 (excerpted) by Mark Twain
14 Excerpts from “The Strenuous Life” by Theodore Roosevelt
15 The King’s Speech by King George VI
16 We Shall Fight on the Beaches by Winston Churchill
17 For We Let Our Young Men and Women Go Out Unarmed by Dorothy Sayers
18 Anyway attributed to Mother Teresa
19 Brandenburg Gate Speech by Ronald Reagan
20 Freedom from Fear Speech by Aung San Suu Kyi

 
They have a schedule where you practice #1 until it is memorized, and then move on to #2, while still practicing #1, etc.  There is an audio recording that is part of it so you can listen to it to help you memorize. There is a schedule for reviewing the previous levels on regular intervals so that those poems are not forgotten.

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by cintinative

[Moonhawk]

@cintinative How long do you think Level 1 took you? Is it pretty comparable to a school year? I do random poetry memorization with the kids, and toss in some Shakespeare from the plays we are reading, but I think the long poem/speeches are what I want to aspire to, and it would be easier to do with a program to work up to it. I always look at these poetry memorization programs and flirt with them in my cart, but never pull the trigger. But the list of speeches, now that's tempting. 

eta to answer OP's question, @lulalu: we do speeches from Shakespeare. "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" was the last one we did. We do a longer prayer daily from memory (14 stanzas, about 7 lines each?). I know as a kid in 6th grade in school I had to memorize the Raven by Poe; we didn't have memory work in grades before this so I don't know what they were thinking, only 2 of us successfully memorized it. In the end they made it a group project so we all effectively memorized 4-7 stanzas, something like that, then recited in groups taking turns. That may be something you could consider, too.

Agree it is just a matter of working 1 stanza at a time, then adding on. What I've liked about it for the kids is that then smaller memorizations seem easy, and they expect they can memorize things because they have done it before. This blends over into music lessons for us, where no one balks at a piece memorization because they are already used to long form. Just make sure that you review the early parts often , so that you aren't memorizing stanza 15 to find out stanzas 1-3 are gone. We usually do all the stanzas memorized, then add on, so that way gaps are less likely to happen or stay long if they do.

Edited September 11, 2021 by Moonhawk

[Slache]

I like IEW Poetry, too. I can't comment on how long it took because it's one of several resources we use and we don't use it as written.

[cintinative]

8 hours ago, Moonhawk said:

@cintinative How long do you think Level 1 took you? Is it pretty comparable to a school year? I do random poetry memorization with the kids, and toss in some Shakespeare from the plays we are reading, but I think the long poem/speeches are what I want to aspire to, and it would be easier to do with a program to work up to it. I always look at these poetry memorization programs and flirt with them in my cart, but never pull the trigger. But the list of speeches, now that's tempting. 

 

We were only doing it 2-3 times a week when we started which was maybe 3rd grade?  We might have started with every day and I had to drop it back to twice a week?  My oldest finished level one in about three years (we think?), but my youngest struggles with memorization and never finished.  That's part of the reason we gave up. I think it really needs daily attention and review over the summers too. The way it works is you are supposed to review all the prior poems as you learn the new one.  So if there are 20 poems on the list for level 1, it takes time. Once you graduate a level, they have a review schedule for the prior level's poems so that they get rotated in.  I sort of like the idea of working on the speeches later as part of a class for high school but I haven't formulated anything.  

This is Level 1, by the way. 

1 Ooey Gooey author unknown
2 Celery by Ogden Nash
3 The Little Man Who Wasn’t There by Hughes Mearns
4 The Vulture by Hilaire Belloc
5 After the Party by William Wise
6 Singing Time by Rose Fyleman
7 The Yak by Hilaire Belloc
8 The Ingenious Little Old Man by John Bennett
9 My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson
10 There Was an Old Person Whose Habits by Edward Lear
11 Jonathan Bing by Beatrice Curtis Brown
12 Whole Duty of Children by Robert Louis Stevenson
13 Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore by William Brighty Rands
14 My Gift by Christina Rossetti
15 The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson
16 Persevere author unknown
17 Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti
18 The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
19 The Swan and the Goose by William Ellery Leonard
20 Personal selection (8 lines or shorter):

[cintinative]

8 hours ago, Slache said:

I like IEW Poetry, too. I can't comment on how long it took because it's one of several resources we use and we don't use it as written.

do you mind sharing how you use it?

[Moonhawk]

@cintinative and @Slache, and anyone else who uses the IEW poetry: does the teacher workbook add a lot to you? I could see us using the CDs, but that's more of a flourish than a necessary thing for us, so I'm debating between just getting the student workbook or the full set. I have a bad habit of not reading directions, lol, but if the teacher book gives valuable advice I'd make the effort to try. 

[Porridge]

We memorized a lot of longer pieces when the kids were younger (they are 13 and 11 now). Somehow the practice of memorization just got squeezed out by other things. They have forgotten most of what they memorized, though my older still remembers lines and snatches. I don’t fee lit was a waste of time. It imprinted them with a poetic sense - an ear for rhythm and meter and poetic language. Sometimes they’ll bust out with some incredibly poet turn of speech, and I credit the bit of eloquence to the years of memorization and copywork.

[Slache]

2 hours ago, cintinative said:

do you mind sharing how you use it?

I pick what I like from beginning to end, so it's in order but not every poem. I print a copy for the front of my binder with the rest of my memory work for the week. I read the whole thing and we discuss it for context. I read the title and first line or half, depending on length, for 2 or 3 days. Then I read the title and they recite the line and I read the next line. Rinse and repeat. When it's finished it goes in ANKI.

[Slache]

3 minutes ago, Moonhawk said:

@cintinative and @Slache, and anyone else who uses the IEW poetry: does the teacher workbook add a lot to you? I could see us using the CDs, but that's more of a flourish than a necessary thing for us, so I'm debating between just getting the student workbook or the full set. I have a bad habit of not reading directions, lol, but if the teacher book gives valuable advice I'd make the effort to try. 

No. Never touched it, or the CDs.

[cintinative]

20 minutes ago, Moonhawk said:

@cintinative and @Slache, and anyone else who uses the IEW poetry: does the teacher workbook add a lot to you? I could see us using the CDs, but that's more of a flourish than a necessary thing for us, so I'm debating between just getting the student workbook or the full set. I have a bad habit of not reading directions, lol, but if the teacher book gives valuable advice I'd make the effort to try. 

There's a teacher workbook? Ooops.  I don't remember anything except maybe a couple pages on how to implement it.

I did print the student pages. They didn't color them but it helped them to read off of to memorize. I think they are designed so they can be colored on.

If I had been a bit more motivated, it would have been good to do the poetry memorization as car school and used the CDs.  As it was, we never used the CDs. I introduced them as a help at first and they said they didn't want them.  

Thanks for sharing your method @Slache.  I was much more hands off about mine, which is probably why it failed. They practiced on their own until they got a poem down, and then they recited that one plus all the prior ones to me. If they did it without mistakes, they moved on to the next poem. 

[Quarter Note]

On 9/2/2021 at 4:02 PM, lulalu said:

I was looking at Memoria Press, and see that in 6th (I think) they offer memorizing Horatius at the Bridge. It looks like you can get a medal as well. 

This has me thinking about adding a longer poem to memorize instead of many shorter ones. Does anyone do a longer poem? How has that worked out for your kids? My DS is 9, he does a lot of Scripture memory work. 

We are doing American History this year. So I was thinking it might be good to try Paul Revere's Ride. But I feel that would be too long in its entirety, so maybe I would need to just pick part of it. 

Any been there done that advice or thoughts? Are there benefits to learning a longer poem over several shorter ones? 

Hi @lulalu.  I'm late to this thread, but I think you should go for "Paul Revere's Ride".  Nine-years-old is not too young.  I was going to start off our year with that poem, but my kids asked for "Charge of the Light Brigade" instead, so we'll pick up Paul later this semester.  

If your son gets started and then fizzles out after a while, he still has at least the start of a classic American poem in his memory.  Maybe you can just try to get through the stanza about the boats in the harbor (which I think has some really neat imagery).  

For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of Longfellow's poetry and many of his poems, long or short, are wonderful to memorize.  He used rhythm very strongly, and kids respond to that.  Think of the rhythm to Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith":

Un-DER a SPREAD-ing CHEST-net TREE

The VILL-age SMITH-y STANDS...

Every time my kids recite this they start swinging their arms as if they were blacksmiths striking an anvil, too.  It's a lot of fun!

Good luck, and have fun!

Edited September 14, 2021 by Quarter Note

[Emily ZL]

I think if you get your child on board with the poem, the sky is the limit. Winston Churchill famously memorized Horatius at the Bridge, but he did it on his own because he loved it. My son doesn't always love some of his medium length poems and they don't always make it to full memory flawlessly. But he developed a love for Paul Revere's Ride and started memorizing it on his own. I would not have given it to him if he hadn't decided on it himself. Which is all just to say that a child's motivation or buy in is huge for poetry memorization. If the child has the power to help choose the poems and is engaged, they can do wonders. But even Robert Louis Stevenson will be beyond a child who hates it and doesn't want to do it.

[EmilyGF]

On 9/13/2021 at 6:42 PM, Quarter Note said:

Hi @lulalu.  I'm late to this thread, but I think you should go for "Paul Revere's Ride".  Nine-years-old is not too young.  I was going to start off our year with that poem, but my kids asked for "Charge of the Light Brigade" instead, so we'll pick up Paul later this semester.  

If your son gets started and then fizzles out after a while, he still has at least the start of a classic American poem in his memory.  Maybe you can just try to get through the stanza about the boats in the harbor (which I think has some really neat imagery).  

For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of Longfellow's poetry and many of his poems, long or short, are wonderful to memorize.  He used rhythm very strongly, and kids respond to that.  Think of the rhythm to Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith":

Un-DER a SPREAD-ing CHEST-net TREE

The VILL-age SMITH-y STANDS...

Every time my kids recite this they start swinging their arms as if they were blacksmiths striking an anvil, too.  It's a lot of fun!

Good luck, and have fun!

DH and I both memorized at least the first page of that in elementary school. When we drove into Lexington on vacation last summer, we both started quoting it spontaneously. The kids really got a kick out of it!

[Quarter Note]

On 9/27/2021 at 6:40 AM, EmilyGF said:

DH and I both memorized at least the first page of that in elementary school. When we drove into Lexington on vacation last summer, we both started quoting it spontaneously. The kids really got a kick out of it!

What a great story, EmilyGF!  I really think that the opening lines to Paul are among the most inviting in all of poetry.  I can always picture some kids crowding in closer to old Henry, sitting in front of a cracking fire, when he starts out, "Listen my children, and you shall hear..."