by flagamuffin

If you force someone to memorize poetry, they may not ever read poetry again. Unfortunately I think it's just a medium that you have to be of a certain age to a appreciate -- no use nipping that bud pointlessly at ten years old. The flip side is that it's easier to remember things when you're young. I cheated on every single poetry memorization test I ever took, but now I learn Tennyson for fun. Unschooling? Antischooling?

And this leads me to another axiom - That if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all.

-Keats