If your parents are any older than around 65, you’ll have heard them drone on about how poems, learning and reciting them, was part and parcel of their schooldays. (‘Disciplines the mind…’ etc etc)\u00a0 And they can probably still give you a little burst, too.\u00a0 \u00a0Learning a poem is part of what my father calls ‘filling your cupboard’.\u00a0\u00a0That’s the\u00a0compartment inside you that is stuffed full of images, memories, jokes,\u00a0stuff you learnt at school, all the wise words anyone ever told you plus a whole lot more you remember from books you’ve read, song lyrics you’ve retained, hymns you’ve sung and so on.\u00a0 As he says, in the event of being taken hostage, or getting trapped (for a long time) in a lift, or alone down a mine shaft or any situation where you find yourself alone in the dark, not knowing when you’ll get out, having a full ‘cupboard’ is indispensable. (How likely is it that this situation will arise? But never mind. It’s good to be prepared.)<\/p>\n
The guy with the REALLY full cupboard has to be Field Marshal Lord Wavell, onetime Viceroy of India.\u00a0\u00a0He had a huge memory for poetry and collected all the poems he knew by heart into an\u00a0anthology called ‘Other Men’s Flowers’<\/a>.\u00a0 Fantastic book.\u00a0 And when your kid groans at learning a 10-line poem, it’s\u00a0a concrete example of\u00a0 just how much the brain can hold on to.<\/p>\n My son’s got to learn a poem.\u00a0 My view is that he might as well choose one that will add some value to his cupboard.\u00a0 Poems about nose-picking and pants are out.\u00a0 Rudyard Kipling’s paternal words of advice to his son in his poem\u00a0‘If’ may set the bar pretty high, but it’s one that will give\u00a0my boy\u00a0a good reference point for the rest of\u00a0his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If your parents are any older than around 65, you’ll have heard them drone on about how poems, learning and reciting them, was part and parcel of their schooldays. (‘Disciplines the mind…’ etc etc)\u00a0 And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n