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Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
Harry's question is exactly the sort that drives many English professors mad. A teacher friend was ranting to me the other day about how his students wouldn't stop asking why they had to memorize a poem when they could copy it to their smartphones. "They'll never learn to be eloquent, the inarticulate lemmings!"
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I'm afraid I really see no reason for memorising poetry - that's why writing was invented in the first place, so that people didn't have to remember everything.
I have sufficient familiarity with Shakespeare's Sonnets to be able to recognise one when I see it; I have the "Arden Shakespeare" edition of the Sonnets with nice explanations about them all. How does it make me a more eloquent person to memorise them all?