Every year, I ask my students to memorize a poem, but I intentionally avoid using the word “memorize.” Rather, they must learn Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Langston Hughes’s A Dream Deferred, or some other famous verse by heart. When memorized, poems become something we hold dear in our hearts and minds, growing almost into a mental keepsake. But there are also demonstrable educational reasons to do so.

Throughout history, literary and artistic greats have employed memorization as part of their creative development. A common practice in jazz circles is the act of memorizing and transcribing famous solos. There are articles online dedicated to listing the classic improvisations that any aspiring musician ought to have memorized. Charlie Parker famously memorized Lester Young solos, transposed them into every key, and practiced them at double or triple their original tempo. Shakespeare would likely have spent time memorizing Holinshed’s Chronicles, where he drew inspiration for his history plays. Augustine would have learned entire passages of Virgil by heart. Each of these literary, musical, and philosophical masters, through memorizing the best of their predecessors, thereby developed a palette for sound, rhythm, imagery, and melody.

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