Off by Heart, by Eve Lockett

Cantoria di Luca della Robbia

Recently on iPlayer I listened to Giles Brandreth’s Poetry by Heart, a radio programme about the benefits of learning poetry. The benefits for the young are obvious – it trains their minds, enhances their vocabulary and enriches their thoughts. The point of interest for me was that Brandreth wanted to persuade his older listeners it was not too late for them to learn new material. I’d always assumed I’d passed the age when it was possible. His challenge was that we should make the attempt. Apparently it helps us grow new brain cells and keeps them sizzling.

I asked a professional actor if he’d heard the programme and whether he thought it was possible for older people to learn poetry by heart. He said he’d never had any trouble learning scripts, although admittedly he used to find it easier, and when he had no script to learn he would set himself to memorise a long poem. He told me that, at the age of 84, Dame Maggie Smith is appearing in a one-woman show, A German Life. 

For people like her it just seems to be a gift. Others might find they simply can’t do it, and have unpleasant memories of being made to learn things by heart at school – or rather punished for not learning them. If you warm to the idea, though, the possibility is you may discover you’re more able than you thought and that you relish the achievement. Nor does learning poetry have to result in performance. Even if you never speak lines of poetry out loud, you can still enjoy memorising them, reciting them mentally, and savouring the shape of the words in your mind and mouth.

So how does this impact us as writers? One benefit must be to give us an ear for the sound of what we’re writing. Philip Pullman says about his own writing that the sound of the words shapes his sentences. Another benefit could be the influence on our choice of words and the way we use them. It’s probably not ideal, though, to sprinkle our work with remembered (or half-remembered) quotations unless we are as brilliant as P G Wodehouse, as erudite and whimsical as Dorothy Sayers, or Agatha Christie looking for a book title.

For Christians, there is another benefit to learning by heart. The Bible itself came out of an oral tradition, passed on by word of mouth before being written down. And there is a long tradition of memorising scripture verses. Some people learn whole passages, or even books, in order to retell them in an effective and enthralling way. I’ve heard Jonah told in this way, and also the gospels. 

Taking the plunge, I’ve decided to have a go at learning Luke’s account of the disciples on the Emmaus road. In the passage, Jesus recounts to the two disciples all that scripture reveals about himself. He doesn’t read it off a smart phone or a pocket bible, he knows it. And they would have known the references he selected. It seems fitting to learn by heart an account of others who learned by heart. The problem comes in choosing a translation, and at the moment I am looking at the NKJV which retains the lyrical use of language. If you know another or a better, please share it with us.

So, whether it’s a limerick, or Jabberwocky, or a passage from the Bible, let’s grow some brain cells!