Mnemosyne

Mother of all The Muses

In today’s New York Times, Melissa Kirsch had an article (“Memory Palace”) about the power of poetry, memorized. The act of committing a poem to memory makes it part of you.

Forever.

When I was a senior in high school, my English teacher required us to memorize the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. I thought it was a ridiculous—no, sadistic—thing to req…