Poems

How to Learn a Poem by Heart

To understand a poem it is important that you learn the poem by heart. This way and in your own time you can take it from your mind and see the words dance and you can dance to the rhythm. Here is a method of a hundred methods of learning by heart

LEARNING A POEM BY HEART

1. You have to love the poem
2. Read it over a few times
3. Read it aloud
4. Find the flow of the poem
5. Count the number of lines
6. Put a picture on each line
7. Take the chief word on each line
8. Hang the word to each line
9. See the story and put the pictures into your mind and then add the language to the scenes

Take the rooms of your house and at each room pick out five large items. This gives my 20 items on which to hang words or sentences. Place the word on each item. (Appendix 1)

This method allows me to learn by heart the beautiful words of the finest poetry, prayers and literature. I can turn these around in my head during the day, so that no matter what I am working at or how bad the situation I am in the beauty of life.

I can wake up in the morning and drive to work with the beauty of poetry in my mind. Saying out the words I can understand the rhythm and the meaning of the words. It allows me fill my mind with beauty; which is a very good way to open the morning.

I sometimes have a very sharp routine and carry a Dictaphone. It is much easier than stopping every few yards and having to write the sentence. On returning to the office I put this draft into my computer. I put the worked draft into my Dictaphone again and the next morning, work on it again. This could take a few sessions before I get it right. All the time I am updating my computer. I may leave it for a few weeks and go back to it. I am always reviewing and refreshing poems.

I change my routine very often. I now carry with me a half note book which sits easily in my pocket. I carry a few half biros which ensures I always have a pen available to enable me put the thoughts down as they occur. Thoughts are like clouds and once passed are gone unless written down. I often have difficulty at night as the warmth of the bed will deter me from writing the thought down. I convince myself that I will remember the lines in the morning but I never will. So sometimes I just get up and write them down.
Often they don’t sing as well as they flashed through my mind during the night but some do.

I do the same for the prose. I find the Dictaphone is a good discipline and I can hear my own voice and sound the idea or phrase. I wrote 5 North Main Street this way. Any time I sat before the computer I made a mess. In Comrade Tom my Novel I used the same procedure. I could hear and feel the atmosphere of the moment.

APPENDIX 1

Take the poem by Patrick Kavanagh -On raglan Road.

My first room there is the Window, T V, Fireplace, Piano and large dining table.

Window: On Raglan Road on an autumn day, I met her and I knew.
I look out and see the driveway and the leaves falling from the trees. I see a girl walking in.

T V: That her dark hair would weave a snare that one day I would rue.
I see the girl with black hair and a snare around her neck.

Fireplace: I knew the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way.
I put my finger in the fire and feel the pain.

Piano: And I said let grief be a falling leaf.
From the piano, little leaves are falling full of tears.

Large table: At the dawning of the day.
The dawn is rising on the gleaming table.

APPENDIX 2

Company Law: The essentials for the formation for a company.

C A N A L

C Capital

A Authorised Share Capital

N Name

A Articles of Association

L Limited Liability