Memorize This!

Stasha over at Northwest Mommy runs a nice little weekly link-up called The Monday Listicles (It's a list. It's an article. It's a listicle!). This week's list is 10 things I've memorized.

I've memorized lots of things, some interesting, some not. Some of them were memorized when I was young, some more recently. Some of the early ones I still remember, but others I've forgotten.  Let's take a look, shall we? Well, of course we shall, or else I don't have anything to blog about this week. Here we go:

1. Countless phone numbers. Interestingly, with speed dial on our cell phones, it's been years since I've actually memorized a phone number. Like most people, I'd be lost if my cell phone died. I don't even know my daughter's phone number! What was the most recent phone number you actually memorized?

2. The address of the house I lived in until I was twelve: 313 N. Cooper Dr., Santa Ana, CA. 92703. Yes, I even remember the zip of the house we left 42 years ago!

3. Those countless little things we all memorize: addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, my ex-husband's girlfriends' names. You know. The routine stuff. 


4. When I was very little, I went to Vacation Bible School one summer. We memorized, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20

5. We also memorized "Even the winds and the sea obey him." I didn't remember where that was located, so I looked it up. Mark 4:41

6.My high school locker combination: 10-34-4

7. This list of helping verbs: is am are was were be being been should would could may might must do does did have has had can will shall

Source

 
8. In the sixth grade we had to memorize two poems. One was 
"El Dorado" by Edgar Allan Poe. I still remember the first stanza:
          
          Gaily bedight
          A gallant knight
          In sunshine and in shadow
          Had journeyed long
          Singing a song
          In search of El Dorado

You can find the rest of the poem at this link. 


9. The second poem was "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. I still remember most of it. Let's give it a try and see how I do. I'll write it from memory and then make corrections in red.
 

Drawing by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves
And the momeraths, outgrabe. 

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son.
The jaws that bite! The claws that snatch!
Beware the jub jub bird and shun  
The fumeous Bandersnatch." 

He took his vorple sword in hand  
Long time the manxome foe he sought
Then So rested he by the tum tum tree
And stood a while in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood
The jabberwock with eyes of flame
Came whiffling through the tulgy wood
And gurgled  burbled as he it came.

One two! One two! and through and through
His vorple sword went snicker-snack.
He left him it dead, and with his its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day!   Caloo, calay!"
He chortled in his joy. 

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves
And the momewraths, outgrabe.
 
Except for misspelling a lot of the nonsense words, I did pretty well. You can check it out here.  What did you have to memorize for school?


10. Sometime in college I tried to memorize Shakespeare's 18th sonnet. I didn't do so well. All I ever remembered (and still remember) is this:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

It's really a beautiful sonnet. Be sure to read the whole thing.

So that's it for me. What interesting things have you memorized?