Memorizing Poems

Suzanna Anderson Creates ♦ February 1, 2014 ♦ 2 Comments

I did memorize poems years ago, but I don’t remember those now. Since I do write poems, it’s about time to commit some poems to memory. The ones I want to focus on are:

1. When I have fears that I may cease to be–John Keats
2. The Reckoning–Theodore Roethke
3. My Papa’s Waltz–Theodore Roethke
4. The Waking–Theodore Roethke
5. Snake–Theodore Roethke
6. The Pike–Theodore Roethke
7. This Be the Verse–Philip Larkin
8. I heard a Fly buzz–when I died–Emily Dickinson
9. The Road Not Taken–Robert Frost
10. Fire and Ice–Robert Frost
11. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening–Robert Frost
12. The Owl–Edward Thomas
13. Rain–Edward Thomas
14. The Red Wheelbarrow–William Carlos Williams
15. In a Station of the Metro–Ezra Pound
16. Her Lips Are Copper Wire–Jean Toomer
17. At Melville’s Tomb–Hart Crane
18. This Lunar Reality–W.H. Auden
19. The Pope’s Penis–Sharon Olds
20. The School Children–Louise Gluck
21. On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City–Sherman Alexie

The list will grow as I read more poetry collections. What poems do you think I should memorize? What poems do you have memorized?