A Fun Way to Appreciate Poetry
During my undergraduate English degree, my Milton prof let us skip the final paper if we memorized and recited "Lycidas" to him. In the years since I have found that learning that poem by heart taught me more than any paper I could have written.
At its heart poetry is meant to be memorized and recited, and learning a poem by heart is the only way to truly live inside of its language, rhyme, and meter.
Ever since that Milton class, Ive wanted to learn more poems by heart - but its difficult! This app helps a lot. It turns the most trudging, annoying part of memorization into a game, complete with scores, achievements, and even Game Centre integration.
The only downside with this apps method is that it doesnt help you figure out which line goes where - since the words you will need are always available, providing pretty obvious hints.
That said, its a nice way to get more poetry into your life, which is always a good thing.
One request though, developers? Tennysons "Ulysses". Please?
ajlb about
Poems By Heart from Penguin Classics, v2.0