Memorizing a poem
Yesterday’s post on the A–Z technique showed how powerful the first letter of a word is for association. This can be used to memorize a poem!
Wait, what? How? Let me demonstrate. First, read aloud the first verse of Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Repeat a few times. Then write out the poem, but use only the first letter of each word (keep the punctuation), like this:
W…. w…. t…. a.. I t…. I k….
H.. h…. i. i. t.. v…… t…..;
H. w… n.. s.. m. s……. h…
T. w…. h.. w…. f… u. w… s….
Now read through this version a few times. You might stumble at some places, but then you can take a peek at the full version.
And finally, try to repeat the lines purely by memory. Ones committed don’t forget to keep repeating them – maybe with the help of a spaced repetition system (SRS).
You can try it with the full poem:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
I found this in a video by Nelson Dellis1.
References
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Nelson Dellis. 2018. How to memorize lines instantly (seriously). Video (YouTube) ↩