HOL

Reciting poetry without having the poem in front of you is a tricky test of your memory (not to mention your public speaking skills!).

Don’t worry, we’re not expecting you to get up on stage and start reeling off Shakespearian sonnets this week. Instead, we’d like you to do a quick poetic memory test.

There are 3 stages to this task:
1. Pick a poem that you know fairly well (or a few verses of a longer one). If you can’t think of one, then find one you like and spend some time familiarising yourself with it. Aim for something that’s at least 8 lines long, if you can.
2. Then, open a blank document or grab a notebook. Write down the poem as you remember it. Do not look back at the original poem until you’ve finished - that's cheating!
3. Report back on how you got on in 80 words or more. Did you surprise yourself with how much you remembered? Or maybe you made up some lines of your own that actually sound pretty good? Even if it was a complete disaster: don’t worry. This is purely for fun. You don't need to share any of your attempt unless you really want to.

Please make sure your chosen poem is HOL appropriate (suitable for people of all ages).

Post your responses below by 23:59 HOL-time on the 20th of August to earn 20 beans!

I actually did this as soon as it was posted, but never got around to writing up the results.

There's been a few poems I had to memorize in school, so I decided to see how much I can remember of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. I had to recite it in high school, not the whole one, just the last three stanzas.

I actually managed better than I thought I would. I relied mostly on ''hearing'' the words in high school, so writing it down was a nice experience. I mixed the order of quite a lot of similar words or phrases, such as ''sainted'' and ''radiant'' maiden. I also repeated the most famous ''quoth the raven "nevermore!" too many times. It doesn't end like that!

Overall, I'd give myself around 85% of correctness. Pretty good for someone like me.