Favourite Poem Project

Robert Pinsky's Favourite Poem Project is really a quite remarkable one. We've listened to a few examples in class, and I've enjoyed every single one of them. The most recent one that I have heard is about Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, from the point of view of a retired anthropologist from Boston.

I chose the Shakespearean sonnet for several reasons. I love sonnets, and have a poster in my room back home of all of Shakespeare's sonnets. While I was not personally familiar with #29, I knew what Shakespeare's sonnets were like, and therefore felt that I could at least understand the poem (if not know it ahead of time), and instead focus on what the man was saying about how the poem made him feel.

It was really impressive, I thought. He managed to memorize the entire poem, and from the stories that he told from his youth, had memorized quite a few other poems, like it was nothing. Now, I've heard of people memorizing poetry for an elementary-school assignment, but rarely do people remember that poem into their 80s, like this man. Is it a lost art? Why don't people memorize poems anymore? Do they still do, and I just am uninformed?

Now I want to go memorize a poem.
-J
-J