Students and professors recited Tennyson and Tolkien in the first official meeting of the Memorization Club in January.
“We hope that the Memorization Club will inspire students to take small steps to pursue memorization and recitation, thereby connecting their memory to community,” sophomore Miriam Ritchey, president of the club, said. “We believe that memory can flourish when it is connected to community.”
Associate Professor of English Dwight Lindley and senior Julianna Undseth were among those who recited during the first meeting.
Lindley, who recited Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” said he loves memorizing and reciting. He said he would be happy to recite another passage if invited to another recitation.
“I am of the belief that there are several ways you can have knowledge,” Lindley said. “You can have it in books and the internet where you know where to get it, but having something inside of you is a superior way of knowing it. I think we should bring beautiful things into our life and memorization is a way of doing that.”
Undseth recited “Mythopoeia” by J.R.R. Tolkien at the event.
“To be able to pull out this poem I memorized at any time is really fun because then I can share that beauty with people,” Undseth said. “I don’t have to go on my computer and pull it up, I can just say it in any circumstance.”
The Memorization Club became an official club when it was approved by the Student Federation earlier this semester.
Last year, Ritchey hosted a few personal recitations in the Heritage Room where she and a few of her friends recited Psalms and poetry. Ritchey decided to start a club when other students said they were interested in participating.
“My recitations freshman year were personally planned and run because there was no club for the kind of events I wanted to host,” Ritchey said. “So several friends and I formed the Memorization Club with the goal to connect our memory with the community around us.”
The Memorization Club plans to host another recitation March 27. It is open to all of campus and invites students and faculty to recite selections from both poems and prose. The club will provide snacks.
Undseth said she hopes club meetings will help keep members accountable for memorization.
“One of the biggest struggles about memorization is the fact that it is very self-regulating,” Undseth said. “It is very tedious, and so it’s hard for you to make yourself do it.”
Ritchey and Undseth both said they hope the Memorization Club will be a positive community on campus.
“If more people know that people are doing it, it will give them the confidence to try it themselves,” Undseth said. “So I hope that the club can inspire people to memorize, keep each other accountable for memorizing, and also encourage people too.”
