Saturday, October 02, 2010

QUOTH THE RAVEN "NEVERMORE."

Ask my kids.  I have this urge to recite poetry learned in my childhood, sing a song from my teenage years, or quote a line from a movie whenever some image or event connects me with a memory from the past. Actually,  my siblings also have this urge.  It must be a genetic thing!  Thus, last week Up North, when my sister and I were walking along the lake taking pictures of the beautiful fall colors, and I came upon this sight, I had to break out into............


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
Only this, and nothing more." 
The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe  (1809-1849)
Of course earlier in the week I had already done this one.....
 
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
There the wrinkled old Nokomis
Nursed the little Hiawatha,
Rocked him in his linden cradle,
Bedded soft in moss and rushes.
Safely bound with reindeer sinews;

The Song of Hiawatha by  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882

Do kids learn these poems anymore?  I don't think so.  We remember the words to countless Elvis and other rock and roll songs.  Will the words of their top ten tunes still be sung 50 years from now!  I know the answer to that one is for sure a loud NO!  What do they have in their memory?  I love all those little gems I have in my memory.....will they love what is in their memory?

Sorry for the goofy formatting.  I copied those words from a site that will not let me change the color etc!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

how can they remember any rock and roll songs if they don't understand the words now?
Riky

Anonymous said...

I have the same type of thing going on from my past, Marge. I would more often break out into song, but my family says, "No. Don't sing!" I used to have a fairly good voice, but it's a bit more gravely these days, and they say I sing too loud!

I do have one daughter who loves to have me teach her all the goofy camp songs I learned in my youth. She sang them to her teammates on the bus to Kent State BB games. I think sometimes they told her also, "No. Don't sing!"

Nancy in Iowa

DynamicDuo said...

my husband and I do this all the time, always breaking into song, sometimes to redirect focus with our girls and sometimes just cuz' we feel like it. I sing nonsense to the girls all the time, usually to the tune of "the grinch stole christmas", I would imagine given that our girls are still learning English that our quotes from years gone by such as "too old to cut the mustard" and "that's a hoot" confuse their fellow peers - awww that's just too bad! ;0)

Memaw's memories said...

I still remember The Road Less Traveled by Robert Frost from junior high. I'm 61 now.