Comments on: 30 Days to a Better Man Day 10: Memorize “If”

By: Cassidy

Cassidy — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:36:37 +0000

Thank-you so much.! I have to have this memorized by Tuesday (today being Sunday.) I’m in festival this year but we just got our poems! I was drawn to this poem and immediately thought “I have to do this” But I’ve had a hard time memorizing it.! Thanks! This helped~

By: Jon Hachey

Jon Hachey — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:14:05 +0000

I have the ending of Rambo:First Blood Part II stuck in my head forever, probably because I watched 5000 times growing up. But whenever someone asks me what I want, I say in my best Sly Stallone voice, “I want, what they want, and every other guy who came over here and spilled his guts and gave everything he had, wants! For our country to love us as much as we love it! That’s what I want!”
Trautman: How will you live, John?
Rambo: Day by day
I guess Kipling might be a little more difficult.

By: Norm

Norm — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:31:31 +0000

Beautiful and timeless it is and couldn’t be more relevant to what President Barack Obama is experiencing at this time. This is philosophy at its finest.

By: Alex Chebykin

Alex Chebykin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:49:03 +0000

Forgot to thank this website for showing me this amazing poem.

By: Alex Chebykin

Alex Chebykin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:47:36 +0000

I memorized the entire poem and it feels great to recite these brave words to myself whenever I am in doubt or say them over again and again, along with the A man in the arena quote from Theodore Roosevelt, in the shower instead.

By: Julian

Julian — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:38:24 +0000

@Andrew Barbour – Thanks for that, listening right now!

By: Andrew Barbour

Andrew Barbour — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:54:43 +0000

You can download audio files of “If” (for free!) at librivox.org:

http://librivox.org/if-by-rudyard-kipling/

The version read by “Chip” is good.

By: Fraz

Fraz — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:29:58 +0000

@Thomas – I actually do (did) the same thing when I was studying. To make it an extra challenge, I would go for either (a) one-sided, or (b) a 4×6 index card…and yes, it helped enormously. While not giving away my age, in high school I would also record notes to “tape” (see note) and play them back while I was walking around, during lunch, or riding the bus. I’m a very “audio” person and remember what I hear almost as well as remembering what I write…which I guess plays nicely to the rote memorization method which for me always means remembering “times tables.”

NOTE, for the young ‘uns: a tape was like having an iPod that could store only 90 minutes of music, or about a 1/2 megabyte of data that required “turning over,” like a double-sided CD inside an audio device that was sometimes called a “boom box” to enjoy the full 90 minutes of music. Occasionally, or often at the time, home entertainment systems would include a pair of “cassette decks” that would allow people to either (a) copy music from one tape to another, or (b) play BOTH tapes, back to back allowing one to enjoy a party of 3 hours without repeating music or needing to change the “LP,” which is really too complicated to describe here.

for the humor challenged.

By: Kly-Max

Kly-Max — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:29:56 +0000

Hey All!

Just subscribed yesterday! Yeah me!

My $0.02…

A great way to help memorize something, especially something bad-ass like this poem is to do so emotionally. If you really dig into the emotion of what ol’ Rud, for example was tapping into (pride, humility, etc.) than the words will stick better. Once I find the emotional core of a piece, and truly embrace it, the memorizing seems to be almost effortless.

I think it’s because I’m totally channelling the author, like in a different realm of reality, dude….yeah.

It would be cool to start a list of Manly Memorizers. I’m sure a Shakespeare sonnet would be in there, as well as the Bible, Koran, Bhagvad Gita (sp?).

From the looks of the comments, we already have a pretty good start!

By: Edgar

Edgar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:51:20 +0000

Jason Y,

Memorizing foreign language vocabulary, while an important part of language learning, is not enough: you have to know grammar, too.

Memorization is an essential part of learning a foreign language, but for all those memorized words to be of any use, you have to be able to put them together–which you get from studying–and using–grammar. Making sentences in a foreign language is a “doing” skill, kind of like playing the piano: you can only get better at it by doing it.

Having said that, I’ve already gotten started on memorizing “If.” I like the suggestions for passages from the Bible, too.

By: LA

LA — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:24:36 +0000

I often refer to Google as my second brain. I can feel the creeping effects on my thinking of no longer really needing to store information – my writing is also starting to suffer. So I’ll certainly be taking on this challenge.

‘If’ is already one of my favourite poems so it’s a great place to start.

Thanks for the inspiration!

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:57:03 +0000

I do a lot of bardic — singing and storytelling — in a Medieval reenactment group I’m part of. Because my songbook is very heavy, I generally only carry around a single sheet of paper that has the names of the songs, stories, and poems I’ve memorized on it. That list is now around 50 items, and always growing. I know from experience that I can get a standard piece (approx 20-30 lines) from “never heard it before” to “ready to perform in front of an audience” in only a few days.

I wrote out my method for memorizing on my livejournal at: http://eveglass.livejournal.com/544803.html

Frankly, I find that there’s absolutely no comparison between reading and performing something you’ve memorized. The connection you can make with your audience when you stare them in the eyes is so much deeper than you’ll ever get with reading.

Cheers,
Julie

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:20:28 +0000

Wow,
I am loving this project !
I particularly liked the gratitude project , and talked at lenght with my wife about it leading me to express my gratitude to her which ,although it may sound corny, was actaully really really nice.

The only poem I can recite on cue is Leisure by W.H. Davies, but this is because I was always a bit of a hippy as a kid and since then it’s rung true to me as the pace of life inexorably sped up (I work in IT Sales now – yes, sell out ).
http://www.englishverse.com/poems/leisure

I’ve always meant to memorise this poem and have only got snatches of it to hand, but I am totally on for this!
=)
Thanks again,
And keep up the ..frankly FANTASTIC posts.
T

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:12:45 +0000

Good post. As a recent high school graduate, I am a complete stranger to memorization. In English class, no attention is placed to language or literature at all; all we ever do is read politically correct feminist books and talk about how books can reflect what is wrong with society. In history class we make video documentaries instead of spending time memorizing things like the Gettysburg address.

In an age where both politics and technology have combined to dumb down learning, I will repeat my compliment: Good post. I will try.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:40:11 +0000

The technique I had for memorization in law school and for the bar was very effective. I took my class notes/outline and tried to compress it, in very small handwriting, onto a single page. Consequently, I was forced to synthesize the information, decide what was important, and try to say it in as few words as possible. When I was done, I had one sheet that had everything I needed to know for the exam. Usually, I could visualize where on the sheet I put down, say, the elements of a cause of action. And, for whatever reason, thinking where they were helped me remember what I had written down. The best thing about this method was having a one-page sheet I could look at the morning before an exam.

I’ve never known of anyone who studied a similar way, but it worked for me.