Learning poetry by heart helps to improve memory and, according to the famous writer Andrew Motion's exact remarks*, “ignites the imagination”.
Keeping a lot of poems in mind is useful for public speaking.
Moreover, verses written by geniuses are perfect for declarations of love.
Memorize verses quickly and effectively
There are three main personality and learning types. We all have a certain amount of each one.
Statistics suggest that:
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about 60% of people living in developed countries have predominantly visual type of personality;
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around 20% of the population are audio learners; the quantity of kinesthetic type men and women are the same.
To be successful in studies, you need to understand what type you are.
Auditory learning poems by heart
”Auditory” people readily perceive anything that involves sound.
They can use these methods:
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reading the text aloud over and over;
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asking a friend to read the poem;
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singing the poem that they want to keep in mind;
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using a dictaphone for recording the verse.
Tips for the people who have dominant visual perception
Visual learners have picture or spatial thinking. They assimilate information more quickly thanks to imagery.
What tricks are good for them?
A simple trick is making a scheme of the poem.
Another memorization technique is depicting an illustration for all the stanzas in the mind's eye.
It is useful to give heed to the length of lines and stanzas.
Kinesthetic methods
This type concentrates through senses such as tasting, smelling, touching.
It is important for kinesthetic people to rewrite the text by hand a couple of times. While repeating a line, they should walk and gesticulate.
A friend, who agrees to listen to them, is a very helpful assistant.
Some more tips
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pick a poem with a rhyme, but not a free verse;
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find a quiet place to study, turn off your phone and your telly;
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don't multitask, focus on the learning your poem;
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take a short break every 15 minutes (that time is not for Internet!);
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take one line at a time and then summarize a stanza;
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use word associations for difficult words;
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combine the first letter of each line into a new word to form a phrase.
*Andrew Motion: learning poetry by heart ignites the imagination - The Telegraph, 2 Oct 2014
