… I'll never vote for learning poetry by rote | Mail Online. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.) I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I see nothing wrong with learning poems by heart. On the other, forcing people to do is something else altogether.
You learned Lear's nonsense poems by heart, not rote; You learned Pops's Iliad by rote, not heart. Remember these distinctions when you quote My verses children: keep them poles apart, And call the man a liar who says I wrote All that I wrote in love for love of art.
(Punctuation guaranteed to be wrong here and there.)
As best I remember it, Robert Graves's take was
ReplyDeleteYou learned Lear's nonsense poems by heart, not rote;
You learned Pops's Iliad by rote, not heart.
Remember these distinctions when you quote
My verses children: keep them poles apart,
And call the man a liar who says I wrote
All that I wrote in love for love of art.
(Punctuation guaranteed to be wrong here and there.)