How to Memorize a Poem

Memorize Any Poem in 11 Steps

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Reading poetry is enlightening and enjoyable. Every now and then, a poem catches you, captivates you, and you just have to set it to memory because you want to live with it and share its wondrous phrases with others. Yet, how do you begin to memorize the verse?

It's quite simple: start at the beginning and memorize the poem line by line. Some poems will be more of a challenge than others, and the longer the poem, the longer it will take to memorize. Don't worry about that and take your time to really enjoy the memorization process and understand every hidden meaning within the poem.

The reward of being able to cite a poem with deep personal meaning is worth the effort. Let's look at the process of memorizing a poem (in poetic verse, of course).

How to Memorize a Poem

  1. Read the poem over, slowly. Read it to yourself, aloud.
  2. Try to understand the mystery of why it works for you using the same words that pass by unremarkably every day.
  3. Try to understand the poem by understanding the poem inside the poem; to understand the mystery by letting the mystery retain its mystery.
  4. Read and say the poem over, slowly and aloud.
  5. Understand the poem by knowing every word’s meaning: etymological investigation.
  6. Dive off the line breaks themselves, into the abyss, cutting the shape of the page around the poem. The poem contains its opposite.
  7. Read and say the poem over, slowly, aloud. Feel its shape in your lungs, your heart, your throat.
  8. With an index card, cover everything but the first line of the poem. Read it. Look away, see the line in the air, and say it. Look back. Repeat until you’ve got it.
  9. Uncover the second line. Learn it as you did the first line, but also add the second line to first, until you’ve got the two.
  10. Then it’s on to three. Always repeat the first line on down, till the whole poem sings.
  11. With the poem now internalized, you are free to perform it. 
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Your Citation
Snyder, Bob Holman & Margery. "How to Memorize a Poem." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/how-to-memorize-a-poem-2724843. Snyder, Bob Holman & Margery. (2023, April 5). How to Memorize a Poem. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-memorize-a-poem-2724843 Snyder, Bob Holman & Margery. "How to Memorize a Poem." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-memorize-a-poem-2724843 (accessed March 28, 2024).