16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, March 5, 1912: I’m trying to commit that abominable piece of poetry to memory and it’s no easy task either, although it is short in the extreme. I only hope I know it, when the time comes to say it.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
What could the abominable poem have been? A hundred years ago people memorized recitations, poems, and Bible verses more than they do today.
Grandma generally did not complain about needing to memorize something. For example, one Sunday she memorized 27 Bible verses. This poem must have had some very difficult text (a dialect perhaps??).
The Poem of Quotes website provides information about lots of 18th and 19th century poets and poems. I browsed through it, but am not familiar enough with old poetry to even guess which poem Grandma was trying to memorize.
What a lovely mystery. Now I’m curious!
This also threw me back to my school days when I had to memorize poems and the anxiety it brought.
Poems also gave me anxiety. I’m not sure whether I was primarily anxious about the memorization–or worried about needing to stand up in front of the class to recite it. I guess it was both. I worried a lot that I’d look foolish if I forgot some of the lines.
I guess it wasn’t “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.” or “The Village Smithy” which seemed to be the poems of choice when I was in Junior high school. wish she’d named it!
I can remember memorizing Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost when I was a child. However, it’s from a later time period than this diary so I’m sure it’s not what Grandma memorized.
I love this phrase: “abominable piece of poetry” – enough said. Thanks for sharing! 😉
I also have bad memories of memorizing poems when I was a child. 🙂
Recent studies have indicated that the act of memorization is good for the brain, and helps children to learn to focus. Something that we seem to have forgotten along the way.
BTW, one of the first poems that I memorized was “Old Ironsides.”. An odd poem to have such a history in my family — My mother, grandmother and I all presented it at some sort of competition in middle or high school. And I presented it at my mother’s funeral — seemed appropriate.
What a wonderful memory! It’s amazing how poetry can connect us on so many levels. I just found and read “Old Ironsides.” I’d forgotten how many layers of meaning it had. Thanks for encouraging me to re-engage with a little of the old poetry.
I find the recent brain research absolutely fascinating.
EQUIPMENT
by Edgar A. Guest
Figure it out for yourself, my lad,
You’ve all that the greatest of men have had,
Two arms, two hands, two legs, two eyes
And a brain to use if you would be wise.
With this equipment they all began,
So start for the top and say, “I can.”
Look them over, the wise and great
They take their food from a common plate,
And similar knives and forks they use,
With similar laces they tie their shoes.
The world considers them brave and smart,
But you’ve all they had when they made their start.
You can triumph and come to skill,
You can be great if you only will.
You’re well equipped for what fight you choose,
You have legs and arms and a brain to use,
And the man who has risen great deeds to do
Began his life with no more than you.
You are the handicap you must face,
You are the one who must choose your place,
You must say where you want to go,
How much you will study the truth to know.
God has equipped you for life, but He
Lets you decide what you want to be.
Courage must come from the soul within,
The man must furnish the will to win.
So figure it out for yourself, my lad.
You were born with all that the great have had,
With your equipment they all began,
Get hold of yourself and say: “I can.”
I learned this when I was in 4th grade
Whew, I’m amazed that you had to memorize this in 4th grade. The poem has a nice message, but it must have been an abominable poem to memorize.
It was hard. Mom an Dad were not Christians and yet Mom chose this poem for me…… I was very shy and did not want to stand in front of the class and recite it but I did……… many years later when at the age of 24 I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour this poem came back to me along with the Hymns that I had never learned at home….. poetry was a new world to me…… I do not write poetry but I have thousands to share.
William
Your memories around this poem makes me realize how things that are difficult when we are young can have have a positive effect across the years. It’s interesting that your mother selected this poem. It must have also had meaning to her in ways that you may never fully understand.
Well She and Dad were from a different era…. Mom was born in 1917 and Dad in 1902 – Mom had a lot of poetry memorized when she was young and read to all of us 9 children often as we were growing up. None of my brothers and sisters knew the Lord and while most of them played a musical instrument or sang in a church choir, none of them took to poetry as I did. After I got saved at age 24 I still could not sing a note…. but then the old fashioned Hymns started growing on me and then the poetry …….The author of this particular poem wrote over 1000 lovely poems several of which I have not only in my memory but also on file in my Gmail folder.