Anyone here had to recite?

Subject: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:23 PM

Totally gone from human experience seems to be recitations. When I was a child, memorization to recite in front of whoever was dying, but I still had to do it. "The boy stood on the burning deck" thread reminds me of it. "The Highwayman" was one I had to do. Also, speeches from Shakespeare -- Henry IV, Part 1. Americans at one time had to be able to recite the Gettysburg Address -- a previous generation had to recite Longfellow ("Beneath the spreading chestnut") or other stuff ("Excelsior!") ("Curfew shall not ring tonight!) ("One if by land...").

I hated it, but now I think it is a great loss that no one memorizes this stuff. I wish I had done more of it. If I am ever in prison or on a desert island, I have scraps of stuff, Shakespeare, Milton, mostly. But wouldn't it be nice to have more?

Anyone have other things that they were forced to recite?

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: MMario
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:27 PM

Rime of the Anciant Mariner

Paul Revere's Ride

Gettysburg address

Under the Spreading chestnut Tree

the "mercy" speech (the Koala Tea of Mercy is not strained)

The Night Before Christmas

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Rana who SHOULD be working
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:28 PM

Forced to take elocution lessons with - wait for it - Mrs. English. We then had to take London School of music elocution exams. Can still remember the one "I wish it would rain" after 36 years or so - shudder. Owl and the Pussycat, however, was fine.

Rana

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:28 PM

"The Queen, my lord, is dead," thing from Macbeth. The introduction to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Some poem about "my heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky." I think all of that was from my senior year in high school... a million years ago...

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bert
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:28 PM

I sprang to the stirrup and Jorris and He....

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Naemanson
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:37 PM

"Forced" to recite? Does this mean none of you do it today? I am working on a recitation for one of our concerts.

The late great David Parry always included a recitation in his performances. I saw him do The Face On The Bar Room Floor once at Old Songs and he nearly had the house in tears.

Come on in, every one, the water's fine! Learn something new and take it to a performance! You'd be surprised at the effect on your audiences. It's just like storytelling only more structured. Not much room to improvise.

Here's a Challenge! Prepare a recitation for the Mudcat gathering in New Hampshire in November!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: MMario
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:40 PM

yeah - forced to recite. There's a diference then doing it voluntarily. Among other things, I don't think those items you are forced to memorize "staY" as well as those you memorize on your own.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:44 PM

Quick as it fell from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf
She leaned far out on the window sill
And shook it forth with a royal will.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame
Over the face of the leader came.
The nobler nature within him stirred to life
At that woman's deed and word
"Who touches a hair on yon grey head
Dies like a dog
March on" he said.

Yep - I had to recite.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bert
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:52 PM

My Dad used to read that one to us SINSULL what a great story I think I might just look that up again and learn it.

Up from the meadows rich with corn
clear in the cool September morn...

It somehow reminds me of another one we had to learn at school.

On either side of the river lie
long fields of barley and of rye
and through the fields a road runs by
to many towered Camelot.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,John Leeder
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 01:57 PM

People of my parents' generation used to recite at parties, etc., where others would sing. A favourite author in Canada was Robert Service, another was William Henry Drummond (my mother had several Drummond poems in her repertoire).

Drummond is out of favour these days because he wrote in French-Canadian dialect. My own feeling is that he wrote with affection and interest, not to put down or make fun of franco-Ontarians. However, anybody reciting Drummond nowadays has be prepared to defend him against a certain amount of hostility.

A couple of good sources of Newfoundland material for recitations would be Ted Russel (he wrote poems as well as stories) and Lem Snow.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,Giac, not at home
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 02:07 PM

'Neath the spreading chestnut tree...

Gettysburg Address

Preamble to the Constitution

Paul Revere's Ride

Various things from Shakespeare

The Highwayman -- an especial favorite

My mother had a large number of siblings. Every Sunday for many years, the whole bunch gathered at one home or another for dinner, after which each child under the age of 10 or so was expected to recite something. The smaller ones were stood upon an ottoman. There was great twisting, tongue chewing and ducking of heads, but one had to get through it.

Actually, the one that stood me in best stead was the Gettysburg Address. In those days, "party lines" were ordinary, with as many as 8-10 households sharing one phone line. While having a conversation, others on the line would pick up and listen. Once, on a whim, I started to recite, "Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new ..." Before I got to the word "nation," I heard six clicks as "listeners" hung up. I used that a few years before we finally got a private line. If someone picked up again, all I had to do was start over -- CLICK!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 02:25 PM

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea.
That a maiden there lived whom you may know,
By the name of Annabelle Lee.
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
--------Annabelle Lee by Edgar Allen Poe

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: dwditty
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 02:28 PM

MMario pretty much hit my list.

In high school, the speech teacher asked me to enter the American Legion Oratory Constest. I was way to shy to say no. I had to write a speech about the constitution that was 11 minutes long, plus or minus 10 seconds, memorize it, and walk out on the auditorium stage in front of the whole school and recite it. I still have nightmares about it. It was alot better the second year, though...

dw

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 03:30 PM

Me too DW.
"Lincoln is become for us the test of human worth..."and my mind went blank. I always thought that if they had let me use "has become" I could have made it through.
We had to memorize speaches form some ancient book on oration. My worst nightmare.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 04:24 PM

Gettysburg Address

And one that I stumbled on: the Star Spangled Banner. I suspect that the teacher who assigned it was already aware that for some reason it's much harder to recite a song than to sing it. Or at least that has always been true for me.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 04:26 PM

How like a fawning publican he looks, I hate him for he is a Christian, and more than that, in low simplicity, he lends out money gratis, and so brings down the rate of usurance here in Venice.

We had to learn this as a class. We were taken to see the play. Regretably it was a cheap production, with Bassanio last seen playing a schoolboy (in 'To serve them all my days) and Portia played by a former soap (Crossroads!) actress, who was a good 15-20 years older than her alleged boyfriend! The actor playing Shylock looked too much like a teacher at another local school, and he was having difficulty. To have 60+ schoolgirls all aged between 14-15 acting as prompt when he corpsed at 'How like a fawning..... a fawning.....' was not the best night of his career....

Mind you, having said that, I've been teaching the bratling to recite Omar Khyyam (awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that put the stars to flight) and Wordsworth (he bloody does eat daffodils), just for a laugh, but also because I think it encourages retention, and I certainly put my ability to learn lines down to it. Pity it doesn't work with songs - I can remember the words, or the tune, can't do both.

LTS

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 04:28 PM

The last recitations I did were when I was at school. Luckily we could choose our own material sometimes. I did Jabberwocky, and Cinderella - by Roald Dahl.

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 04:29 PM

All my recitals came at school. I did the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, the entirety of The Walrus and the Carpenter (240 lines! sheesh!), and of course the preamble to the U.S. constitution (which I had memorized from the Schoolhouse Rock thing on Saturday morning TV, so it wasn't hard at all!).

But good point, Peter T., about having stuff in one's head. I'm told there are monks who memorize the whole of the Bible. That may be carrying it a bit too far!

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 04:37 PM

Peter T.: Why did you recite in front of "whoever was dying"? Oh … never mind. (Grin)

Yeah, I had to memorize the Gettysburg Address (which I could still recite), the first few sentences of the Declaration of Independence ("When, in the course of human events…"), the Preamble to the US Constitution ("We, the people…"). I don't recall having to recite them, though; I think we had to write them out to prove we had memorized them. Good thing, too. It would have been awfully tedious to listen to a whole class of kids reciting the Gettysburg address.

I would be interested in knowing: what documents in other countries are considered of equal importance?

The Pledge of Allegiance doesn't count, does it?

Plus there were numerous short poems, and excerpts from long poems, that are mostly forgotten now. I can remember only a few titles: Longfellow's "Hiawatha," "Evangeline" and "The Village Smithy." Poe's "The Bells" and "Ulalume." Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." ("Many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.") Something-or-other by Emily Dickinson. I think there was one of Shakespeare's sonnets, and a speech or two: Hamlet's soliloquy "To be or not to be…", and Macbeth's "Is this a dagger which I see before me…?" Also, "Kublai Khan," ("In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree, where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea…") "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," ("It is an ancient mariner, and he stoppeth one of three…") "Dover Beach." ("… till human voices wake us, and we drown.") Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."

One thing that has stuck with me is several verses from Poe's "The Raven" ("Once upon a midnight dreary…"). I loved that poem, and I believe I memorized several more verses than the teacher required. I also voluntarily memorized a big chunk of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." ("Let us go, then, you and I, while the evening is stretched out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table…") I loved that poem, too. I found it vaguely funny and sad at the same time. Funny because of the (deliberately) awkward figures of speech; sad because the narrator, like me, seemed to be shy and lonely and awkward when trying to talk to a woman.

Stage fright is a funny thing. I'll bet some of those people who hated to "recite" are the same ones who could sing a song with no trouble. I have known good actors who would fall apart at the thought of singing or improvising, and I have known people who could do brilliant improvisations but wouldn't think of auditioning for a play because "I could never memorize all those lines."

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 04:43 PM

Jim Dixon - thats true. I can get up and sing anytime. But public speaking (even introducing my song...) really scares the excrement out of me!

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Naemanson
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 05:03 PM

I'm curious about the distribution of reciting to national school systems to years that it was required. In other words:
When were you required to do these recitations?
Where (Country) were you at the time?
What were you required to recite?

In other words, it is obvious that only a United Statesian would be required to recite the Declaration Of Independence. Were any of you from the US and also required to recite, say, Gray's Elegy? Were any of the British contingent required to recite Longfellow?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 05:10 PM

speech, not speach DUH!
Liz,
I had my son learn some Frost: "these woods are lovely dark and deep, etc" and explained how it had been used by Kennedy and others. It made an impression - he still remembers.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: annamill
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 05:14 PM

I was also made to recite almost all those old things. If I hadn't read this thread I wouldn't have remembered a one of them. Not surprising though. Not remembering much these crazy days. Seeing them was very nostalgic.

Sinsull, that was a wonderful tidbit. Would you mine letting us know what it's from? The one that Bert knows please? I'd like to read the whole thing.

My daughter, many years ago, could recite 'The Jaberwocky' and she was only 6. I don't know if she still remembers it or not. I'll have to ask her. She loved saying those phrases and she did it with such accents. It almost made sense to me.

Love, annamill

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: M.Ted
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 05:20 PM

BREATHES there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
'This is my own, my native land!'
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand?

Innominatus, Sir Walter Scott

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Ma-K
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 05:31 PM

Gee Wizz I did "I know my face ain't no star", and " Out in the garden where I play". I still remember them. I was three years old then and almost seventy now...Mary ,

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 05:54 PM

had to learn some Shakespeare in 8th grade..(I did Launcelot Gobbo's speech from "Merchant of Venice)

But...my father had a poem ABOUT recitations which he wrote out for me...and someone accidently threw away..if anyone at all knows any more of this..please fill it in!:

"There was once a little boy
And his name was Robert Reece
And every friday afternoon,
He had to speak a piece.
So many poems thus he learned,
That soon he had a score
Of recitations in his head--
But he still kept learning more.

Now one day he was called upon...(gets muddy here)
And found, the piece he was to speak
Had vanished from his head...
And so he spoke at random...
And this is what he said...

"My beautiful, my beautiful,
Who standith proudly by...
It was the schooner Hesperis..
The breaking waves dashed high!
........
........
Roll on, thou dark blue crested crags..(of passion fells?)
My name is Roland..of Norman hills!

etc...lines from "Under the Spreading Chestnut tree and many other poems...ending with...

"........among the fields of heather(maybe)
The boy stood on the burning deck..
But I go on forever!"

wow...my dad never sang...but he DID recite lots of stuff. If I could re-capture that one, I'd be pleased!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Mbo
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 06:10 PM

I was never forced to recite anything in my life. And I hardly ever memorize poems or songs either.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE CREATION (James Weldon Johnson, 1927)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 06:30 PM

I suppose that memorizing quotations and poetry was the thing I hated most about my Catholic education. The nuns started us out in grade school, and then the preiests in my eight years in the seminary were even worse. We had to memorize stuff in English, Latin, German, and Greek. Now I'm glad they made us do it. When I started seminary training in the 9th grade, we had to memorize a long poem. I could have chosen The Cremation of Sam McGee which I've read at campfires dozens of times in my life since then but haven't quite been able to memorize. But I was a pious young seminarian, so I chose this one (below).
-Joe Offer-

---

THE CREATION
(James Weldon Johnson)

And God stepped out on space,

And he looked around and said:

I'm lonely --

I'll make me a world.

 

And far as the eye of God could see

Darkness covered everything,

Blacker than a hundred midnights

Down in a cypress swamp.

 

Then God smiled,

And the light broke,

And the darkness rolled up on one side,

And the light stood shining on the other,

And God said: That's good!

 

Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,

And God rolled the light around in His hands

Until He made the sun;

And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.

And the light that was left from making the sun

God gathered it up in a shining ball

And flung it against the darkness,

Spangling the night with the moon and stars.

Then down between

The darkness and the light

He hurled the world;

And God said: That's good!

 

Then God himself stepped down--

And the sun was on His right hand,

And the moon was on His left:

The stars were clustered about His head,

And the earth was under His feet.

And God walked, and where He trod

His footsteps hollowed the valleys out

And bulged the mountains up.

 

Then He stopped and looked and saw

That the earth was hot and barren.

So God stepped over to the edge of the world

And He spat out the seven seas-

He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed-

He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled-

And the waters above the earth came down,

The cooling waters came down.

 

Then the green grass sprouted,

And the little red flowers blossomed,

The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,

And the oak spread out his arms,

The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,

And the rivers ran down to the sea,

And God smiled again,

And the rainbow appeared,

And curled itself around His shoulder.

 

Then God raised His arm and He waived His hand

Over the sea and over the land,

And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!

And quicker than God could drop His hand,

Fishes and fowls

And beasts and birds

Swam the rivers and the seas,

Roamed the forests and the woods,

And split the air with their wings.

And God said: That's good!

 

Then God walked around,

And God looked around

On all that He had made.

He looked at His sun,

And he looked at His moon,

And He looked at His little stars;

He looked on His world

With all its living things,

And God said: I'm lonely still.

 

Then God sat down--

On the side of a hill where He could think;

By a deep, wide river He sat down;

With His head in His hands,

God thought and thought,

Till He thought: I'll make me a man!

 

Up from the bed of the river

God scooped the clay;

And by the bank of the river

He kneeled Him down;

And there the great God Almighty

Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,

Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,

Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand;

This Great God,

Like a mammy bending over her baby,

Kneeled down in the dust

Toiling over a lump of clay

Till He shaped it in His own image;

 

Then into it He blew the breath of life,

And man became a living soul.

Amen. Amen.

 

From God's Trombones: Negro Sermons in Verse, 1927

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 10:24 PM

Ah, Bagpuss, you've mentioned the sacred text: Jabberwocky!

Not that I was REQUIRED to memorize it (at least by grownups). In high school my two principal co-conspirators (or partners in crime, if you like that expression better) and I had "a club" called The Royal Order of Borogoves. As I recall, the entire purpose of this club was to have Jabberwocky--the whole thing!--as our password. As I recall, the chief duty of a loyal Borogove was to get mimsy on Saturday night. (Noticeable lump of tongue in cheek here.)

A couple of years ago I attended the 50th reunion of my high school class. All three of us old buddies were there, hadn't seen each other in at least 47 years, and then only in passing. Just as the dinner was breaking up, I said to Bruce and Norman: "Hey, we haven't said the password!"

As soon as we left the banquet hall, with one accord and in loud tones we declaimed the full Jabberwocky, with appropriate histrionics, while our respective wives looked on in awe that we all remembered it in detail after nigh on fifty years!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,CLETUS
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 10:40 PM

Now Catspaw seems ta know an awful lotta stuff thet he sez he had ta lern by hart wen he went ta skule an all. He seemz ta like thet kinda' stuff an I know fer a fact thet he kin memrize dam neer ennythang. Now me, well I git me a topnotch Merican forth grayd edgykashun an I kin stikk member a pome I lernt. Heer goze.....

Gene, Gene, bilt a masheen.
Frank, Frank, ternt the krank.
Joe, Joe, made her go.
Art, Art, ripped a fart an blu the whole dam thang apart.

Purty gud huh?

CLETUS

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Marion
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:20 PM

I used to love doing (voluntary) recitation - mostly poems with a strong rhythm and rhyme, like Robert Service, Poe, or Kipling. It was what I did at open mike/campfire type venues. But then somebody gave me a guitar and that was the end of recitation.

Stage fright IS a funny thing. I remember once when in the same day I recited the "Raven" and made an announcement in front of a group over about a meeting; I wasn't nervous at all about the poem, but I was very nervous about the announcement. I think it's something about being more confident in somebody else's words than in your own.

In grade 10 English we had to memorize a chunk of Julius Caesar (the play, not the man). We then had a choice: we could show our stuff by reciting it (just in our seats, not having to get up in front of the class) or by writing it down. Strictly speaking, the writing option was more demanding because then we were responsible for the punctuation as well as the words. But I was the only one in the whole class who chose to present it orally. This surprised the class and myself, since I was very quiet and shy and dreaded most oral presentations. But I wasn't even slightly nervous - Shakespeare's words, not mine. There's probably a lesson here.

Marion

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:33 PM

I had to recite in high school (Omaha, Nebraska, '72-'76) and the required stuff was mostly Shakespeare or Walter De La Mare. But we could choose things too, and I was very pleased with myself when I got my "perfect" repertoire up to ten long poems by my senior year.

But I didn't mention my accomplishment to my grandmother or my father (she was born in 1896 and he was born in 1920.) They were both word perfect on poems THEY had learned in high school, and both knew lots more than ten.

Recently I found a book called "Committed to Memory" edited by John Hollander, and a lot of the poems I remember them quoting are in it. Too late to ask them which ones they knew, alas, but the memories are still in my head.

CD

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: KT
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:39 PM

Seventh grade...The Undelivered Letter, by Fulton Oursler. Had to recite it in front of the whole school. I walked out onto the stage, heart pounding...could have heard a pin drop, but for the ringing in my ears..It got worse and worse, then everything went dim yellow....Don't know how I got through it. My memory of it stops after the dim yellow light.......Maybe that's why I had such terrible stage fright for years...reciting or singing. Took a regular gig to learn to get over it.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Susan A-R
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:47 PM

I learned Father William, A. A. Milne's King John's Christmas (which is still said in our household every year) and would like to learn Lord Randall (with "punctuation.")

Several folks around here have started up Elocution nights. The first was run by the republican party, and moral message was required. Also couldn't go any later than 1933. There has been a competing night set up now without such guidlines. I've always wanted to go before the Republicans and do some Emma Goldman, William Morris, or Ranter stuff. Any suggestions? I'll go and do my bit next March if anyone gives me some truly stunning ideas.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:49 PM

Loved it ! especially this one at age eleven, to the horror of my parents.

"And pretty nigh the crew all drowned
There were seventy-seven o soul
Till only ten
Of the Nancy's men
Said "Here" to the muster roll

There was me and the cook and the captain bold
And the mate of the Nancy's brig
And the bosun tight?
And the midship mate
And the crew of the Captain's gig

For a month we niether whittles? nor drinks
Til a hungry we did feel
Then we drew in a lot
And according shot
The Captain for our meal

The next lot fell to the Nancy's mate
And he much resembled a pig....etc.

You know I think it was called the Yarn of the Nancy Belle but I can't for the life of me remember who the poet was.....Anyone have any ideas?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Mbo
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:58 PM

Yes, it's "The Yarn of The Nancy Belle" by W.S. Gilbert. One of my sister's favorite poems!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: KT
Date: 21 Sep 00 - 11:59 PM

Joe, a teacher I know has her class memorize and recite a poem every year. Some of them were really into it. It was a riot hearing a 9 year old with a very high little voice as she began.... "A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon!"

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:05 AM

and from a prone position the dentist's chair last week, when I had three of my front teeth filed away in preparation for a bridge, the dentist and his assistant were a litlle taken aback, when I suddenly blurted out from MacBeth:

Double double toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
When shall we three meet again
In thunder lightning and in rain
When the hurly burly's done
When the battle lost and won

(think I must have screwed this up a little) It was also hard to do with the freezing and the hole in my mouth where my teeth used to be...

And you are right MMario, you remember the ones that you chose to learn on you own, much better than the ones you had too.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:11 AM

Thank's Mbo! I'm also glad to hear there were other girls besides me who relished in

And I ups with his heels
And smothered his squeals
In the scum of the boiling broth!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: ddw
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:20 AM

We had to learn lots of things for recitation — biblical passages (we're talkin' back in the dark ages when they still had Bible classes in public schools), poetry, Shakespeare, the above-mentioned run of rah-rah Americana.

Never a problem for me unless I stopped and though about what came next. I've always been able to just let my mind relax and memorized words just pour out.

Can't say I remember many of those things now, but I think that may be because it's been more than 40 years since I've had to and in the interim I've jammed in litearlly hundreds of songs I can sing without a hitch.

Hadn't really thought about incorporating recitation into performances, but it might be fun to give it a try.

david

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:25 AM

eeh, Mr. Gilbert certainly strayed far afield from Three Little Girls at School didn't he?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: CamiSu
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:30 AM

In fifth grade, our teacher had the rep of being hard and mean. We memorised poems, (Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods, O Captain, My Captain and on and on) learned to recognise maybe 200 pieces of music by their main themes, with composers and dates, and sometimes spent whole days doing reproductions of Old Masters in pastels. I decided that those who said he was so awful were just jealous. I still love the poems, paintings and music. Also he read us stories, and we wrote our own poetry. One of my classmates won the Walt Whitman poetry contest, which was open to anyone. The other 4 winners were all in HS or adults!

Then in HS we had to memorise soliloquoys from Shakespeare. Now I sit in awe as daughter Wavestar and her friends recite the first act from Romeo & Juliet (which she directed a year ago. But they weren't reciting their own parts! And Jessica knew them ALL!)

And Naemanson, I was going to bring a story to Derry. Is that OK?

Cami Su

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: CamiSu
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:38 AM

Oh and I forgot to ask, Kim, did you ever SING My Heart Leaps Up? Some kid set it to music when I was in HS ('72 I think) And Joe, I assume you've heard the musical setting to God's Trombones, no? It is quite wonderful. (a choral piece, can't remember, did Dawson do the music?)

Cami Su

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:51 AM

Naemanson, I can't remember if we were required to do recitation in elementary school, here in B.C., although I do seem to have memorized a number of poems from that time, but I do know, that starting in Grade 8 English, right through English 91 (for those who were majoring in Literature) it was required.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:15 AM

Who can forget these? MMy teachers called them "purple passages."

Whan that Aprille, with hise shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
(clique ye for more)

-and-

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit
Litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
Vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram.
Click for more

-and-

Bier her, Bier her
Oder ich fall um, juch he
Bier her, Bier her
Oder ich fall um.
Soll das Bier im Keller liegen
Und ich hier die Ohnmacht kriegen.
Bier her, Bier her
Oder ich fall um.
(Click for more)

If you can translate the last one, you'll know why that high school teacher was most popular.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Elise
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:26 AM

I've never been FORCED to recite anything...but I frequently annoy people by doing it anyway! It's one of the reasons I sing, I often memorize anything I've heard once or twice, whether I like it or not. I've got rhyming stuff rattling around in my head that even I don't like.

Anyone wanna challenge me to a limerick contest?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 02:05 AM

Up with the sale of it
Down with the pail of it
Glorious, glorious beer!

I am ashamed to admit that I am the only female I know, who was booted out of a pub during Octoberfest in Munich, for being too drunk.

Subject: ADD: An Overworked Elocutionist ^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 02:26 AM

Hey, Bill - look what I found here (click)!!!
-Joe Offer-

---

An Overworked Elocutionist
by Carolyn Wells (1869-1942)

Once there was a little boy whose name was Robert Reese;
And every Friday afternoon he had to speak a piece.
So many poems thus he learned, that soon he had a store
Of recitations in his head and still kept learning more.

And now this is what happened: He was called upon one week
And totally forgot the piece he was about to speak.
His brain he cudgeled. Not a word remained within his head!
And so he spoke at random, and this is what he said:

"My beautiful, my beautiful, who standest proudly by,
It was the schooner Hesperus--the breaking waves dashed high!
Why is this Forum crowded? What means this stir in Rome?
Under a spreading chestnut tree, there is no place like home!

When freedom from her mountain height cried, "Twinkle, little star,"
Shoot if you must this old gray head, King Henry of Navarre!
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue castled crag of Drachenfels,
My name is Norval, on the Grampain Hills, ring out, wild bells!

If you're waking, call me early, to be or not to be,
The curfew must not ring tonight! Oh, woodman, spare that tree!
Charge, Chester, charge! Oh, Stanley, on! and let who will be clever!
The boy stood on the burning deck, but I go on forever!"

His elocution was superb, his voice and gestures fine;
His schoolmates all applauded as he finished the last line.
"I see it doesn't matter," Robert thought, "what words I say,
So long as I declaim with oratorical display."

from The Best Loved Poems of the American People Hazel Felleman, 1936
JRO ^^

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bugsy
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:09 AM

This was one of our elocution excercise:

To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock,
In a pestilencial prison with a life long lock.
Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block.

We first had to recite it aloud then then again in a whisper so that only the first and last consonants were audible.


Works quite well.

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:35 AM

I used to learn poems that appealed to me when I was ... well, the earliest one I can date for certain was when I was 9, but I'd started before that. I still do monologues in folk clubs (or anywhere else, given half a chance).Humorous ones -- The Lion and Albert, or any of Billy Bennett's, for instance -- always go down well, but serious ones do too. Try The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God without sending it up: as a Poem it's pretty naff, but a a piece of story-telling it's terrific. Even Gunga Din -- especially Gunga Din! -- I usually "restore" the swear-words, depending where I am.

I've met a lot of folks who know hundreds of songs, but can't recite a single of of 'em if you ask for the words -- they soon give up and start singing to you. Any neurophysiologists out there got an explanation? You know many people with a stammer can sing with no trouble: that's because the two processes use separate pathways in the brain.

Steve

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,Michael in Swansea
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 04:38 AM

Sea Fever

M

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 06:08 AM

In singarounds and such it's pretty common to have the odd monologue, and I do it myself, but it rarely goes beyond that in my experience. I suspect it's another of those things that are going to creep back into our folioe culture, like storytelling.

But it's definitely true that reciting a song can make people listen to the words in a way they don't when it is sung. Sometimes I've known sigers who will recite a verse or two from a song before singing it, and it can be very effective.

It is something which people who aren't comfortable with their singing voice should consider trying out. (And that doesn't always mean people with bad singing voices - there are many people with great voices that they somehow can't use in public.)

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 06:47 AM

Dave - can I be in your club then? I know the password...

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,micca at work.
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 06:52 AM

Metchosin, It is delightful to see that someone else loves "Nancy Belle"
" Oh elderly man tis little I know
of the duties of men of the sea
but I'll eat my hand if I understand
However you can be,
at once the cook
and the captain bold
and the mate of the nancy brig etc"
But , no one has mentioned one of the GREAT poems for recitation
" Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far
Don John of Austria is going to the war"
G K Chesterton " Lepanto" try reading that aloud, it takes on a whole new dimension over reading it quietly to yourself,
Someone has suggested a Hearme of poetry reading/recitation, an I for one am up for this.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 07:48 AM

The only thing I was ever "forced" to recite was the pledge of alliegence. However, I have always loved poetry and great quotes, so, I have miles of that stuff in my head. Two of my favorites, ..The moving finger writes, and, having writ, moves on
Nor, all your piety and wit can lure it back to cancel half a line
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it." (Omar the tent maker)
Another favorite is John Masefields: Loch Arcre....and the crew made seven and twenty dishes for the big jack sharks and little fishes..over their bones the water swishes..
I recite this in concert, then immediately, I sing Old Fid. It's a powerful combination.

My ex wife hated to be disturbed in the morning while she was waking up, so, I would sometimes say: arise for the sun has put the stars to flight
and caught the Sultans turret in a noose of light..she hated that.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 07:55 AM

I love Sid Kipper doing recitations of his own stuff. he is abso-bloody-lutely hilarious. If you get a chance to hear him - take it!

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 08:19 AM

Kendall, no wonder she hated it -- you got it wrong!

Awake! for morning in the bowl of night
Hath flung the stone that puts the stars to flight; And lo! the wingèd hunter of the dawn hath caught
The sultán's palace in a noose of light!

Steve (from memory - I've probably got it wrong too, but then there were two versions)

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Micca
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 08:48 AM

There are 5 versions by Fitzgerald alone, Steve and version 1 reads
Awake! for morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight:
and Lo!the hunter of the East has caught
The Sultans turret un anoose of Light.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 09:25 AM

I am happy to say that my reciting is still in the present tense! I still try and slip an odd poem into a set if I can.

among my repertoire I include Scads of Shakespeare, Lewis Carrol (Twas Brillig..Dave?), Kipling, Robert Service, TS Eliot Stan Marriot and acres of poetry from schooldays

My problem is the opposite one unless I'm playing I can't remember the chords!

Into the street the piper stepped
Smiling at first a secret smile
as if he knew what magic slept
In his quiet pipe the while....

Subject: Lyr Add: BARBARA FRIETCHIE (J G Whittier)
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 09:33 AM

MTed - brought back the shivers.
Sea Fever - I haven't read it in ages. Thank you, Michael.

More than you will ever need to know about Barbara Frietche. She is fictional by some accounts but has a grave and haunts several old Maryland homes by others. I see her in the faces of old women in war torn countries all over the world.


John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
BARBARA FRIETCHIE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indexes: [ by Poet | by First Line | by Date | by Keyword | by Topic | Criticism on Poetry ]
Related Materials: [ Encoding Guidelines | Questions and Answers | UT English Library]


Original Text: The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Cambridge edition, ed. H. E. S. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1894): 342-43. PS 3250 E94 1894 Robarts Library.
First Publication Date: 1863.
Representative Poetry On-line: Editor, I. Lancashire; Publisher, Web Development Group, Inf. Tech. Services, Univ. of Toronto Lib.
Edition: RPO 1998. © I. Lancashire, Dept. of English (Univ. of Toronto), and Univ. of Toronto Press 1998.
In-text Notes are keyed to line numbers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Up from the meadows rich with corn,
2 Clear in the cool September morn,

3 The clustered spires of Frederick stand
4 Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

5 Round about them orchards sweep,
6 Apple and peach tree fruited deep,

7 Fair as the garden of the Lord
8 To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,

9 On that pleasant morn of the early fall
10 When Lee marched over the mountain-wall;

11 Over the mountains winding down,
12 Horse and foot, into Frederick town.

13 Forty flags with their silver stars,
14 Forty flags with their crimson bars,

15 Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
16 Of noon looked down, and saw not one.

17 Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
18 Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

19 Bravest of all in Frederick town,
20 She took up the flag the men hauled down;

21 In her attic window the staff she set,
22 To show that one heart was loyal yet.

23 Up the street came the rebel tread,
24 Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.

25 Under his slouched hat left and right
26 He glanced; the old flag met his sight.

27 "Halt!" -- the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
28 "Fire!" -- out blazed the rifle-blast.

29 It shivered the window, pane and sash;
30 It rent the banner with seam and gash.

31 Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
32 Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.

33 She leaned far out on the window-sill,
34 And shook it forth with a royal will.

35 "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
36 But spare your country's flag," she said.

37 A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
38 Over the face of the leader came;

39 The nobler nature within him stirred
40 To life at that woman's deed and word;

41 "Who touches a hair of yon gray head
42 Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.

43 All day long through Frederick street
44 Sounded the tread of marching feet:

45 All day long that free flag tost
46 Over the heads of the rebel host.

47 Ever its torn folds rose and fell
48 On the loyal winds that loved it well;

49 And through the hill-gaps sunset light
50 Shone over it with a warm good-night.

51 Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,
52 And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.

53 Honor to her! and let a tear
54 Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.

55 Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
56 Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!

57 Peace and order and beauty draw
58 Round thy symbol of light and law;

59 And ever the stars above look down
60 On thy stars below in Frederick town!






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTES
Other poems by John Greenleaf Whittier ...
The poet's life and works ...
Composition Date:
not known.
Form:
couplets.
1.
"This poem was written in strict conformity to the account of the incident as I had it from respectable and trustworthy sources. It has since been the subject of a good deal of conflicting testimony, and the story was probably incorrect in some of its details. It is admitted by all that Barbara Frietchie was no myth, but a worthy and highly esteemed gentlewoman, intensely loyal and a hater of the Slavery Rebellion, holding her Union flag sacred and keeping it with her Bible; that when the Confederates halted before her house, and entered her dooryard, she denounced them in vigorous language, shook her cane in their faces, and drove them out; and when General Burnside's troops followed close upon Jackson's, she waved her flag and cheered them. It is stated that May Quantrell, a brave and loyal lady in another part of the city, did wave her flag in sight of the Confederates. It is possible that there has been a blending of the two incidents." [Whittier's note, p. 342]
3.
Frederick: northern Maryland town.
10.
Lee: Robert Edward Lee (1807-70), American confederate general, victor in the Civil War battles of the Seven Days, Cedar Run, Bull Run, and Chancellorsville, loser in the battles of Antietam River and Gettysburg, and eventually (as commander of all the Confederate armies) the one who surrendered at Appomattox on February 9, 1865.
24.
Stonewall Jackson: Thomas Jonathan Jackson (1824-63), confederate general with Lee.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 09:50 AM

Cletus,
Some of the biggest idiots I know have PhDs. Your Fourth Grade Education has served you well. And your "recitation" gave us all a laugh.True story - I'll bet.
Some others I recall:
In Flanders Field
The Village Smithy
The Barefoot Boy

A line is going through my head and I can't place it:"A host of golden daffodils" Help anyone recognize it?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:01 AM

Sinsull, isn't that in "I wandered lonely as a cloud"?

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:10 AM

Bless you Bagpuss "that floats on high o'er vale and hill..." Now I can go back to work.
Mary

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Mbo
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:16 AM

Is that the one about the host of yellow daffodils nodding in the breeze? Then it's Daffodils by Wordsworth.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:29 AM

a close cousin to...

I wandered gaily through the dawn
That filtered down between the trees
As though towards the lakeside drawn
That rippled on to greater seas
And, as I stepped down to the shore
Encountered that not spied before

For there upon the verdant sward
A bunch of nettles proud and high
Of poisoned itching jewels, a hoard,
Those stings stretched up towards the sky
And in the very midst of these
I stood enfolded to the knees

So now upon my bed I lie
and swiftly ply the soothing Dock
The leaf, its charm, the pains belie
I rose again ere chimed the clock
With scythe in hand, on brow a frown
I chopped those bl***y nettles down!

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU NEVER CAN TELL (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:33 AM

We have always had poetry and recitation in my family. My dad still has reams and reams of the classics which he can rattle off with no problem. Most of my favs have already been mentioned.

I was reading poetry with a friend, yesterday, from a book of my daughter's which she found at a library sale. In it was this gem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

YOU NEVER CAN TELL

You never can tell when you send a word
Like an arrow shot from a bow
By an archer blind, be it cruel or kind,
Just where it may chance to go.
It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend,
Tipped with its poison or balm,
To a stranger's heart in life's great mart
It may carry its pain or its calm.

You can never tell when you do an act
Just what the result will be,
But with every deed you are sowing a seed,
Though the harvest you may not see.
Each kindly act is an acorn dropped
In God's productive soil;
You may not know, but the tree shall grow
With shelter for those who toil.

You never can tell what your thoughts will do
In bringing you hate or love,
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe--
Each thing must create its kind,
And they speed o'er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Mbo
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:41 AM

Well, actually, I memorized this one. You should hear me and my sister recite it together.

A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of seeds
And when the seeds began to grow
It was like a garden full of snow
And when the snow began to melt
It was like a ship without a belt
And when the ship began to sail
It was like a bird without a tail
And when the bird began to soar
It was like a lion at my door
And when the door began to crack
It was like a penknife in my back
And when my back began to bleed
I was DEAD DEAD DEAD INDEED!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:52 AM

Wow! I remember that from when I was a kid Mbo!

I also used to like learning the Hilaire Belloc "cautionary tales" as well as anything by Roald Dahl.

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Mbo
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:59 AM

Cool! I think there is another version that has "There was a man from Leeds" instead of the man of words & not of deeds. Do you know that one?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 11:05 AM

'Fraid not Mbo.

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 11:13 AM

I have learned to love recitation. I alway mix poems and songs as complimentary pieces. "Spainish Johnny" followed by "When the works All Done This Fall" and "Sully's Pail", recited, followed by "Coal Tattoo" are work horses in my one man performances.

My children are afraid to stand before anyone and speak and be the center of attention. I wish I could change that aspect of their schooling. I feel that by learning to recite and be the focus of the moment children learn what it means to have the respect of their peers. And there by, recieving respect, they learn to give the same.

One of my favorites, slightly altered to allow for a lack of visual cueing;

Count these as of my heart felt wishes,

To hear a fish tale as told by fishes,

Of worms with rather droopy looks,

Pierced through by hateful, horrid hooks,

Of fisherman they faced all day, Some,

As big as me, and got away from.

Don

Subject: Lyr Add: I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD (Wordsworth)
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 11:54 AM

Thanks, Mbo.


I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodil;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed and gazed but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 11:58 AM

Mbo and Bagpuss, that is Sandie Toy and the words are in the DT. My Mom, brother and I learned it from my grandmother and sing it too, with the addition of the following verses

I came to a river
I couldn't get across
Payed 2 shillings for an old blind horse
I jumped on his back
His bones gave a crack
I played on the fiddle till the boat came back

The boat came back
We all jumped in
The boat capsized and we all fell in
Crack goes one
Crack goes two
Crack goes my hand over you.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:08 PM

Wandering Minsrel, that's a hoot! Do you have a title and author?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:23 PM

There are many versions of Omar...the one I quoted is less romantic, but easier to remember.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:24 PM

Another snippet:
"It little profits a noble king..."
It is Ulysses (Odysseus) complaining about his inactive old age but who wrote it?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,Mbo_at_ECU
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:30 PM

That's "Ulysses", by Tennyson, Sins. "Matched with an aged wife, doling out laws unto a savage race..."

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:47 PM

You're amazing, Mbo. My aged brain can only recall bits and pieces. Thanks, Mary

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 02:29 PM

Bagpuss, you may now consider yourself an Honorary Borogove!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 02:47 PM

It ought to be noted that many of these poems that we so earnestly took to heart are literature in the same way that "Love Story" and "Valley of the Dolls" were literature, albeit to a later age.

Even those works that had merits of the high order were trammeled into doggerel by generations of well meaning and noble minded teachers and other officers of culture--and yet the most mawkish or mauldin of lines, recalled after all these intervening years, has a marvelous ability to evoke other worlds, both real and imagined, that were, til this moment, forgotten--

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:11 PM

I think the Aussies are really responsible for keeping the fine tradition of recitation alive, with their Bush Poetry (and to a lesser extent here in North America with Cowboy Poetry) I love the stuff! but it has to be done orally.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Naemanson
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:16 PM

Back when I was in high school (in the days when all homework was written on clay tablets) my English teacher made the comment that 9 out of 10 people would instantly be able to complete the Lewis Carroll verse. So, always ready to challenge authority, a friend and I memorized the verse and went out to see how many adults would be able to come up with the whole verse.

I guess we had a particularly dim set of adults in our high school. Our count was 2 out of 10. And the English teacher did not appreciate our efforts!

Remember that 87% of a statistics are made up on the spot!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Naemanson
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:17 PM

That's 87% of ALL statistics are made up on the spot!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: mousethief
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:22 PM

Naemanson: Which Lewis Carroll verse?

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Naemanson
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:42 PM

Sorry, Twas brillig and the slithy toves...

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Micca
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:44 PM

Speaking of mangling poetry, I had no problems with the Rubiyat, until some prat told me you can fit the words rather neatly to the tune of Hernandos Hideaway, this made if difficult to recite it for several years and it is a Fave...WARNING, dont try it unless you want it squirelling for a week or so...

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: mousethief
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:53 PM

I think all my teenagers can complete the Brillig line. I know my wife and I can.

My daughter worked for weeks to memorize the "Breathe deep the gathering gloom" poem from Nights in White Satin (she memorizes slowly).

You can also sing the doxology ("Praise God from whom all blessing flow...") to Hernando's Hideaway.

My wife says that in a lit class in college, the teacher defined a "lyric poem" as one you could sing. At that point one of the girls in class stood on her chair and started singing "Maid of Athens, Ere we part" to the tune of "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me."

Switching lyrics and melodies is a lot of fun.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 06:09 PM

Thank goodness I don't know Hernando's Hideaway.

Ah, sea fever - I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and sky
I left my vest and pants there, I wonder if they're dry! sorry, threadcreep to Spike Milligan there.....

Another favorite - my name is Ozymandias, king of kings, look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.... Always wanted to reply that, when ever someone on the phone asks my name.....

LTS

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 06:49 PM

NOW THAT I'VE GOT THE ATTENTION of all the Mudcatters who love poems and recitation, it is probably a good time to ask again for the words to a poem I have been seeking for a long time. The poem was first mentioned in this thread. The title is "Uncle Albert's Heroic Farewell To The World", by Eddie Pickford. I heard it on the radio a long time ago, recited, I think, by Lou Killen. It's hilarious. It's about a darts game. I can't tell you much more than that without giving away the joke. It has a refrain that goes -

There's a stain on the floor of the bar room
There's a cap in the case by the door
There's a verse on a stone in the church yard
In memory of one who's no more.

Apparently there were some folks who asked for, and received the words from Lou himself, but they were sent by e-mail instead of posted to the thread. Apparently those people are no longer active members of Mudcat because they haven't replied to my e-mails either.

Anybody know where I can get the rest of the words?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 11:41 PM

Of course there's always the challenge recitations.

The challenger gives first one line and then two and then three and so forth, and the challenged tries to repeat them back each time.

One of the most famous goes:

One hen

Two ducks

Three squawking geese

Four Limerick oysters

Five corpulent porpoises

Six pairs of Don Alverzo's tweezers

Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array

Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt

Nine old men on roller skates with a distinct tendency towards procrastination and sloth

Ten lyrical spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who all stall around the corner of the quo, the quay, and the quivvy.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 06:51 AM

Uncle Albert's farewell - I heard it couple of weeks ago at Whitby. That's no help, because I don't know the name of the fella who spoke it, but at least it shows it's still current.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 09:18 AM

Michael, Sinsull, & Liz - I've ordered the sheet music for Sea Fever (hope it's the version I remember), and when I get it I'll write a midi for the DT. Also, I hope to get Dave (the ancient mariner) to sing it for us on HearMe! Can't you just hear his voice singing those words?

Also, Liz - wasn't Ozymandias the one where only the legs of a stone statue were left standing in the desert? "Look on my might works and despair, only ..........left standing there." I used to get that phrase as an error message for a computer program I had to use often. Back in the old days, we had to type in our data on cards, submit several huge boxes of data, then wait several hours to find out that we misplaced a comma. I saw that particular error message a lot.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,John Bauman
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 10:54 AM

Two contemporary folk musicians use recitaion to GREAT effect in concert, Ellis Paul and David Wilcox. They catch your attention and, just incidentally, allow time to re-tune the six-string.

For me it was IF (you can keep your head about you are losing theirs...), Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty... as well as countless chapters and verses from scripture (esp 1Cor. 13. Psa. 1 and 23)

John

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 12:46 PM

McGrath of Harlow:

Was that at the Whitby Folk Week, at Whitby, North Yorkshire? If so, I'll try e-mailing them. (I have an e-mail address that I found in another thread.)

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bradypus
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 07:05 PM

Joe - thanks for posting the Overworked Elocutionist. I've known this for years, but never seen it written down. As a result, I didn't know the title, the author, or the last verse! (Actually the ending without the last verse is still quite effective ... ' I go on forever'.

There was a Burns recitation prize at school, which I won twice. It wasn't difficult - recitation was a dying art, and to come first out of two or three doesn't really prove much.

When I was very young (about four), I could recite a fairly long poem in Scots, called 'The Whistle'. Unfortunately I can't remember it all now, but if I can find my written copy, I'll post it - it's good fun!

Bradypus

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 10:11 PM

"Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit, from pole to pole"......

That's the "unconquerable soul" poem, for those who don't recognize it. Called Invictus.

"I must down to the sea again..."

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now.."

Oh, boy, these things are coming back!!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 11:23 AM

Metchosin

Thankyou! Its called

"Variation on a Theme by Wordsworth" and the author is (modest cough) me!

do feel free to copy it, I wrote it years ago for a parody competition.

My other favourite is about the man who had to dispose of a case of scotch, Opened a bottle, had a glass and poured the rest away down the sink.. By the ninth bottle the repetition is somewhat confused

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Naemanson
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 12:12 PM

Wandering Minstrel, can you point the way to the words to the poem for the disposal of scotch. It sounds like one I need for our drinking songs set. I'm working on Trouble Brewing by C. Morris and would like to add another poem about drinking to the mix.

One of the other poems I do is Ships That Pass by C. Fox Smythe.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 11:45 AM

Joe, thanks for reminding me of The Creation. Never memorized it, but always loved it!

There were certainly some standard Canadian set pieces, at least up to the 60s. I can't say I ever liked "along-the-line-of-smokey(?)-hills-the-crimson-forest- stands..." but I still LOVE

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the sky on laughter silvered wings."

And, thankfully, have re-thought Flanders Fields, almost brought to its knees by bad drilling in school ... but has withstood such malpractice.

We also did a lot of the standard American stuff of the time - Robert Frost (did he write "whose woods are these?")

My mother, an ex-teacher, tells me that some years ago it was decided that memory work was unproductive. What twit decided that one, then? High Flight has pulled me out of the pits of despair more often than I care to remember...

sian

Subject: Lyr Add: STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 12:35 PM

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
Robert Frost (1874-1963)

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.

[Copied from here, for convenience, but I could have done it from memory.]

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 07:09 PM

On Ozymandias - pass - only ever learned the two lines quoted!!

Somethng that came out of the dim and distant depths today - a poem that ends - and the slow steady work of 200 years, is ended in less than two hours.

It's called Throwing a tree, by Thomas Hardy, and is one of the few things of his that I can stomach.... anyone else ever heard of it? Can anyone point me to a copy of it - it doesn't appear in the anthologies I have, and the one book I know has it (the complete poems of TH) is out of print.

LTS

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 08:56 AM

Naemenson:

Its not so much a poem as an anecdote. you start with some sort of plausible reason for discarding the scotch (past its sellby date or whatever) then you go through the repitition becoming more visibly drunken with each repetition

so:

I opened up the first bottle, thought I had better try it so I had a glass, then I threw the rest away down the sink

I opened up the nex bo'le, Had a glass(hic) and threw the rest away down the, down the ...sink

about bottle 5 its:

I oped...opend the next glass, thought I better try... , drank a sink and poured it down a bottle (hic)

Ultimately the reciter is clearly smashed out of their brain and still trying to go through the repitition. you can end by either collapsing or quitting the stage to the accompaniement of violent retching. It's all in the way you tell it, if you can have a correspondingly deteriorating repeated sequence of opening, drinking and pouring which is at odds to the words it helps

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 11:11 AM

To see this sort of thing done RIGHT, you need to see the old Red Skelton sketch, "Smoooooth!". He's supposedly going to do a television spot for Guzzler's Gin, and after a short snort he says, "Smooth! Guzzler's Gin!" But there has to be a retake. and a retake. et cetera. He gets progressively more smashed, and of course the punch line to each stage is Smooth".."SMOOTH!"... Smooooth!"... and finally "Schmoooooooo-oooo-ooth!" and he collapses, as I recall.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 11:19 AM

Come to think more about about it, the name of the sketch was "Guzzler's Gin", not "Smoooth!" A distinction without a difference, I guess, but I thought I'd set it straight.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: NightWing
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 12:58 PM

*LOL* (Bawdy story warning)

A funny story about recitation: I've memorized numerous bits and pieces here and there. (This member of the Borogoves is resting under the Tum-Tum Tree in uffish thought. *G*) About a year ago I wanted to put together a performance piece for an oddball sort of club I belong to.

And I memorized "Eskimo Nell".

  When a man grows old and his balls grow cold
  And the tip of his tool turns blue
  And it bends in the middle like a one-stringed fiddle,
  He can tell you a tale or two.
  
  So pull up a chair and stand me a drink
  And a tale to you I'll tell ...
  Of Mexican Pete and Dead-Eye Dick
  And a harlot called Eskimo Nell.
  
  .
  .
  .
  [100 verses or so later]
  When a man grows old and his balls grow cold
  And the tip of his tool turns blue
  And the hole in the middle refuses to piddle,
  Well, I'd say he was f***ed, wouldn't you?
  

If anyone doesn't know it, "Eskimo Nell" is a LOOOOONG poem (rather Service-esque, but I don't know who wrote it) about a sexual contest between Dead-eye Dick and Eskimo Nell. (Nell wins.)

Thing of it is, this oddball sort of club is the Hash House Harriers. We call ourselves "the drinking club with a running problem." If you've never heard of it, think of a rugby club for runners.

Memorizing a poem this long well enough that you can do it drunk takes some SERIOUS memorization, and I worked at it for nearly six months before I had the nerve to try it. I got it off okay, though.

About two months AFTER my first try with it, I had surgery on my foot. It was out-patient surgery, so I didn't see the doctor or his staff for several days after they cut on me. When I went back into the doctor's office for my first checkup after, the nurses were sort of chuckling at me. I asked why and one of them explained that under the sedative I had recited poetry. I asked what and she blushed. So I guessed what it must have been and started in on "Eskimo Nell"; she blushed scarlet and practically ran out of the room giggling.

So I figure that's what it probably was. But I still wonder: I got it right when I was dead drunk. Did I get it right even under sedation?

NightWing

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: NightWing
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 01:02 PM

Whoops! Forgot you need line breaks in a pre block:

    When a man grows old and his balls grow cold
    And the tip of his tool turns blue
    And it bends in the middle like a one-stringed fiddle,
    He can tell you a tale or two.
  
    So pull up a chair and stand me a drink
    And a tale to you I'll tell ...
    Of Mexican Pete and Dead-Eye Dick
    And a harlot called Eskimo Nell.
  
        .
        .
        .
      [100 verses or so later]
  
    When a man grows old and his balls grow cold
    And the tip of his tool turns blue
    And the hole in the middle refuses to piddle,
    Well, I'd say he was f***ed, wouldn't you?
  

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 02:55 PM

Being drunk and being sedated are very similar actually. (Which is why alcoholics give anaesthestists fits.) So you probably got it just as "right" in the one state as in the other.

Now, where do I find the rest of the verses?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: NightWing
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 03:42 PM

Somebody in the Humorous Sex Songs thread posted this URL and I found it there.

The Index ...
... And Eskimo Nell herself

This version has several verses not in the version I memorized. Back to it, I guess.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 03:29 AM

It has been attributed to Robert Service. It was cetainly written by a poet of sorts, and not a rugger player!

Steve

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 05:55 AM

If we're talkin' monologues as well as poems, I'm rather partial to Whose on First? and Niagara Falls! - neither of which raise a glimmer of understanding on this side (Europe) of the Atlantic. (sigh)

sian

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 05:56 AM

oops. Quick self-correction: those two are actually dialogues, aren't they? Takes two...

sian

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 01:06 PM

AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Ever since I read this thread, I've had the piece I was forced to recite at school trying to force its way out of its locked down quarentine area buried in the depths of my memory.

"Slowly, silently, now the Moon "Walks the night in her silver shoon, "This way and that, she peers and sees "Silver fruit upon silver trees......"

An appalling piece (IMHO) made worse by never being explained, it was years before I discovered that "silver shoon" were shoes and not a description of moon light.

Give me Kipling every time.

Regards

Walrus

Subject: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 02:06 PM

This is a continuation of this thread (click)

---

A peculiar bird is the pelican
His beak can hold more than his belly can
He stores food in his beak
That's enough for a week
And I don't see how in the hell he can.

---

I always thought this was written by Ogden Nash, but this site (click) contends otherwise.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 04:39 PM

Moses supposes his toeses are roses
But Moses supposes erroneously.
For Moses, he knowses his toeses aren't roses
As Moses supposes his toeses to be!

and another:

The breezes, the breezes, they blow through the treeses
They blow the girls' skirtses above the girls' kneeses.
The college man seeses and does what he pleases
And spreads the diseases--oh Jeezes, oh Jeezes!!

The things you learn in eighth grade!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Micca
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 05:14 PM

Liz, just for you as a sort of belated Birthday prezzie

OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT
By P.B. Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert: Near them on the sand
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survived stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 07:28 PM

Just what I've always wanted....

Gnarly and bent and deaf as a post,
Poor ol' Hezekiah Purvis
Goeth slowly up the hill,
And to the communion service.

Then tippy tappy up the isle,
With knobby stick and brassy furile,
And Pa'son has to croopy down,
An' holler in his yer'ole.

No idea who wrote it, had to learn it for school, got a gold star and a funny look - everyone else did something about daffodils.

LTS

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: GUEST,sybil
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 08:18 PM

Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats. And killed the babies in their cradles, And ate the cheese out of the vats, And drank the soup from the cooks own ladles. Split open the kegs of salted sprats, Made nests inside men's Sunday hats And even spoiled the women's meeting By drowning their speaking in shrieking and squeaking In fifty different sharps and flats.

Grade 5 and it still rolls off the tongue full of sibilants. Robert Browning from the Pied Piper of Hamelyn. We did the daffodils of course. But what I really like from those days are the clapping, skipping and other rhymes from the schoolyard like-

Nobody likes me Everybody hates me Think I'll go and eat some worms Big ones, small ones, skinny ones fat ones Worms that squiggle and squirm Rip their heads off Suck their blood and throw their skins away Nobody knows how I enjoy eating worms three times a day.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,me
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 11:39 PM

hey, look! I'm getting involved with this conversation six years after it happened! It's like the twilight zone!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 02:21 PM

refresh - some great stuff in this thread!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 04:32 PM

Yes indeed! I had almost forgotten that Joe had found the recitation my father did. Copied & saved...now I have to finish learning it.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 05:40 PM

It is a wonderful one, Bill, but I think, sadly, the references would be lost to so many of the younger folks. Maybe not...I may be too melancholy for it, today.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Gurney
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 01:51 AM

I used to do lots of monologues, of the sort associated with Stanley Holloway. The audience preferred them to my singing.


Funny, that.

Think I'll go and see if Paul's site on monologues is still up.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: GUEST,Darowyn
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 04:45 AM

I can do "Albert and the Lion" from memory- I've always found memorising poems and lyrics very easy though.
The only problem came when I was sitting in on a session where some friends going to sing "Black Velvet Band", and I lead off with
"There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool,
That's noted for fresh air and fun...."
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Folkiedave
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 05:16 AM

There was a man in Huddersfield
Who had a cow that wouldn't yield
The reason why it wouldn't yield,
It didn't like its udders feeled.

Heard from John Foreman.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: GUEST,Mark Dowding at work
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:19 AM

Following on from "Daffodils" in the previous thread, Peter Maloney - a Liverpool teacher who did talks about language came up with this parody which my dad does on occasions after first reciting the original:

I wandered dozy with my cart
Up Brownlow hill to take me welt
When of a sudden I seed a tart
That almost made my eyeballs melt

Hey dere girl be my bird
My throat went dry like at the word
What other Judy could I take in through the ale house door each night
What other guy would not go all green with envy at the sight

Jet white of hair with orange gob
Cheeks a rosy purple blob
No more sexy she could look
Than pictures in a drawing book

And as she walked her hips were rockin'
My heart was pounding something shockin'
I looked and looked - oh what a twit
It surely learned me - didn' it
That whilst this Judy stole my heart
Some other swine had robbed my cart!

(Best recited in a scouse accent)

At junior school, the teacher used to put poems on the board for us to copy into our books - some of them stuck - or bits of them which makes me go looking for them 35 years later!

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Alec
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:37 AM

The North wind doth blow
And we shall have snow
And what shall the Robin do then,poor thing?
He'll hide in a barn
And keep himself warm
With his head tucked under his wing
Poor thing.
My public speaking debut.Aged 4

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: mack/misophist
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 09:43 AM

There were three wise men of Gotham
Who went to sea in a bowl...








If the bowl had been stronger,
The storey'd be longer.



For those with poor memories.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Fliss
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 10:00 AM

When I was in the VI form at Shrewsbury High School we had an eccentric master from Shrewsbury School who taught us for the university entrance English exam. We did 'spells'- words for the sounds rather than meaning. We had a poem a week to learn. Then 'volunteered' to recite standing on a chair. We learned a lot of Auden and TS Elliot also ee cummings.

Ive always loved poetry and have written my own since those days.

Beware! Beware!
his flashing eyes! his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
and close your eyes with holy dread!
for he on honey-dew hath fed,
and drunk the milk of Paradise.

XANADU- THE BALLAD OF KUBLA KHAN

Poem by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Only we said her instead of him.
---------------------------------
Anyone lived in a pretty how town
-- E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did.

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hoe and then)they
said their nevers and they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt for forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain


enjoy fxx

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 10:18 AM

When I was about ten years old, every kid in the class of 30 had to recite the Storming of Ratisbon. (Talk about tedious!) I believe it was by Browning. I'm sure most of us had no understanding of what the poem was actually about.

We got our revenge by doing this. The poet wrote:

"I'm killed, sire!" and with his chief beside,
Smiling the boy fell dead.

We recited:

"I'm killed, sire!" and with his chief beside, smiling.
The boy fell dead.

Feeble, yes, but we were doing what we could.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: Gurney
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 02:31 AM

Darowyn, it might be a good idea to mug up 'Albert comes back.' I've had a couple of tots get quite concerned.

Like the amalgam, though. Wonder if I can think of a chorus.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite - Part 2
From: JennyO
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 06:02 AM

I remember a poem we had to recite in primary school, and I vividly remember exactly the singsong way we used to say it:

A Greeeen Cornfield.

Byyyyyyyyee

Christiiina Ro-ssetti

AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,Frank proctor
Date: 19 May 11 - 06:30 PM

brilliant thank Q this as bin wi me for so meny years av tort mi famly it in a scous aksent i herd it on a LP HOW TO TALK SCOUS PROPER av bin lookin for it for over 35 yer once agen tar very much frank    [brownlow hill] xxx

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 19 May 11 - 06:45 PM

In drama lessons at my school, recitation is part of developing acting skills. I took drama lessons after school in Year 7.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 19 May 11 - 07:10 PM

And there was also a time when the whole class had to recite poems. I recited this:
Excerpts from The Song of Beren and Luthien (JRR Tolkien). The last few stanzas in fact.
Yes, I am a huge Tolkien fan! That's how I got my username:).
Found in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, in the chapter "A Knife In The Dark" in Book 1.

He sought her ever, wandering far,
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon
As on a hill-top high and far,
She danced, and at her feet was strewn,
A mist of silver quivering.

When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the Elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again,
He longed by her to dance and sing,
Upon the grass untroubling.

Again she fled, but swift he came,
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening;
One moment stood she, and then a spell
His voice laid on her; Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinuviel
That in his arms lay glistening.

As Beren looked into her eyes,
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinuviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise;
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore,
O'er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of iron and darkling door,
and woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 19 May 11 - 07:29 PM

In Australia, at least, recitation of poems has not died out. However, students are not required to recite specific poems.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: LadyJean
Date: 19 May 11 - 11:08 PM

Like my father, I am afflicted with an eidetic memory and a fondness for performing.

Dad, as a grade school student was told to memorize and recite so many lines of poetry. He learned a part of Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West", ending his recitation on and.

In 1989, I recited most of "Barbara Frietchie" in honor of the centennial of the Carnegie Library of Braddock, Pa. Which was Andrew Carnegie's first library.

Being dubiously blessed as I am, there is a lot of verse stored between my ears. I once learned a rude limerick while sitting on a friend's toilet. I still know it. I still know "Mrs. Ocean Takes In Washing" that I had to learn in the third grade, and the several poems I memorized in grade school because I liked them. Oh yeah, I still know Barbar Freitchie, and all my lines from "Our Town" that we did in high school.

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 May 11 - 11:24 PM

On April 22 (Earth Day) the local Catholic school invited me to read for the eighth grade for the Read Across America program. I was honored, since I heard that Michelle Obama was reading in the same program. I read a selection of poetry (Ogden Nash, Robert W. Service, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Arlo Guthrie, et al.), along with a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The kids loved it, and I had a wonderful time.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Kent Davis
Date: 20 May 11 - 11:30 PM

Here are some of the recitations which my homeschooled daughters (ages 10 and 16) have learned: "When the Frost is on the Punkin", "Barbara Frietchie", "The Weather", "What is Pink", "Who Has Seen The Wind", "The Little Turtle", "Jemima" (There Was a Little Girl), "Psalm 1" (Blessed Is the Man), "Psalm 23" (The Lord Is My Shepherd), and Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (the Shema).

Kent

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 21 May 11 - 02:54 PM

Having once suffered from Chronic stage fright, these days I could probably sing in front of any audience. But though I enjoy poetry and have had some poems published, I don't think I could recite a poem or a monologue in front of an audience! odd eh. Anyone else like that?

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 May 11 - 09:06 AM

Quick as it fell from the broken staff
Dame Barbara grabbed the silken scarf
She leaned far out on the window sill and
Shook it forth with a royal will. "Shoot if you must this old grey head
But spare your country's flag" she said.
A shade of sadness
A touch of shame
Over the face of the leader came.
"Who touches a hair on yon grey head
Dies like a dog
March on!" he said.

Barbara Fritchie

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Sep 16 - 06:45 PM

an anonymous brow beaten, clubbed, denigrated, emasculated, fiend fashioned, geeky homeboy, ill lust traded, jabbering, kooky, liberal minded nonestablishmentarian:
--------------------------------------------------------------------

America boastfulness? capitalistic depravity? egoistic fanaticism? glorified hucksterism? indomitable gerrymandering?
and the list goes on...tracing and bending backward in time when might equaled right, and those debonair, powered/ pomaded hair, leer ring kings of leon drove a stake into the heart of innocence and purity, when ruthless, selfish, and treachery wrenched indigenous occupants of these lands,

THUS....

Touchdown for Colin Kaepernick

noah rant, rave or rabid byte zing
er, from yet another web cruiser
   so, i haint another B52, 747, nor boo wing
brouhaha against your choice against salute ting
the Stars and Stripes, where many
   online patriot game watchers wanna swing
you with a sucker punch or pistol whip ya over the head
   until each ear doth ring
heard all the way back to reign of the Qing
Dynasty, where ye might be revered
   cuz ja got tackled as a traitor with endless har ping
from many another maniacal mechanical motormouth
   from a New Yawk borough, or the enclave of Ossining
freely tossing in their two sense like nattering
nabobs of negativity from....across the states mandating
that ye (WHO OWN the INALIENABLE RIGHT of
   FREE EXPRESSION - non verbal or otherwise)
   once the storied, paraded, mollycoddled dar ling
now ardent fans fanatically go berserk and rogue
   with raucous, obnoxious and libelous king
   size bully tactics demanding
   you plant right hand over left breast
   (and play by the unspoken rules of JINGOISM)
   i.e. unquestioned obeisance toupee hair raising homage
   like discordant jangling
which personal preference suddenly dominate ing
jamming mass media communication -
   with billions of dollars riding buckshot revering Old Glory,
    newscasters getting a run for their money to the end zone
unsolicited absolute horror at such blatant traitorous actions
   when such a decorated, gussied, kickstarter undeserving
to be held in high esteem, BUT I APPLAUD self expression
   (and if in the klieg lights, i would act likewise) giving
thee nonestablishmentarian stance of mine a forwarding
pass, that got hurled around the globe exploding
wrathful gripes sullying America especially during
a poignant moment to such bonobo monkeys that cling
for dear life to false sense of grandeur AND exploitation bing
blithe to the turf wars imposed by fore fathers long since aging
   in mausoleums, who did rent asunder plunder, pillage and rape
   under the aegis of imperialism.
   YOU GO COLIN!

Subject: RE: Anyone here had to recite?
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Sep 16 - 08:32 PM

Two things:
1) I think this deserves its own thread, and
2) It's really, really good. If you don't like what it says, it's still an amazingly good poem.
...end of things.

Guest did you write this or find it?