[AntiBurr]

Kilmer was in my mind when I posted this also.

No, poetry memorization like the multiplication tables requres "rote learning" which, according to "education experts" is bad.
I carry a fair bit of that baggage around with me, but couldn't hold a candle to my mother, who used to quote Longfellow by the hour...By the shores of Gitchee Goomee, by the shining big sea water....as well as many many others. We used to toss alternate verses of Kipling's Barrack Room ballads back and forth just for fun.
I doubt if many do that anymore. This too is sad. It also shows in the quality of writing I see everywhere, including Free Republic.

[Kolokotronis]

The poetry which came out of the Great War, like that piece I posted from Service, was truly extraordinary. When I read your post, I went into the books in the den and pulled out my Robert Service. Reading that poem brought back so many memories of the old soldiers in my family who had such an influence on me was a child and young man.

I suppose that old fashioned education I had did leave a mark. I can still recite Hiawatha, the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and much of Service, Kipling and Frost. As a trial lawyer I use them in opening and closing arguments. Juries and judges seem to like it, though I have been accused of being Rumpolesque on occasion!