Goodnight, Little Jim
27th March 2014
John Derbyshire, Patron Saint of Dyspepsia, reminds us of the poetry we’ve (mostly) lost.
Turner’s idea was to gather together poems that late-Victorian children would have committed to memory and recited at family gatherings or school concerts: “Poems”—I’m quoting from his preface—“of the highest moral rectitude…with plain, easy rhythms, uncomplicated heroics, and unabashed pathos.”
He says that the tradition of family reciting in the actual parlor—the living room—of middle-class homes died out with the coming of radio in the 1920s, but recitation lingered on in the educational system. It certainly did: I learned to recite some of these poems—Byron’s “Sennacherib,” Browning’s “How They Brought the Good News”—in my own 1950s school days.
Time spent memorizing poetry is like putting money in the bank; when you pull it out again years later, you’re always surprised at how valuable it’s become.
March 27th, 2014 at 08:37
Be careful about any poems that include the word, “Nantucket”.