Learning poetry does more than make the poem interesting
Andrew Motion, while complaining about the state of modern British education (some things don’t change):
Learning by heart has got a very bad reputation of being dusty and putting people off poetry. But if you learn poetry by heart, with all that conjures up, it allows it to become interesting.
Something I miss not doing more of when I was young was learning, by heart, poems. When you’re older, it is hard to make the poem “your own,” you’re too caught up in the analysis and criticism of the piece.
