Melba's Jammin' wrote:
[snip]
> Small Child said the Thanksgiving poem I'd taught her the night before
> and requested a poem for Christmas * about snowflakes! Thank Alex for
> the internet and Google. I've got a cute one identified and think
> she'll have no trouble learning it. I like the idea of memorizing a
> poem. (Years ago at a friend's birthday party, another guest gave the
> gift of some incredibly long poem that she memorized while jogging. It
> was very cool!)

Very cool indeed. Encouraging people to memorize and recite poems was
the pet project of Robert Pinsky when he was Poet Laureate. Here's a
quote and book recommendation from "Library Journal:"

"The Favorite Poem Project was founded by Pinsky in 1997 during
his tenure as poet laureate. Some 18,000 respondents sent letters or
e-mails about their favorite poems, which resulted in the anthology
"America's Favorite Poems" and several videos. This new anthology
includes poems selected by Favorite Poem Project participants and their
personal comments. But it also includes poems chosen by the editors,
along with their brief remarks. Although mainly populated by famous
English and American poets (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Housman,
Dickinson, Frost, Ginsberg, Ashbery), the book has many surprises, like
Abraham Lincoln and the Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario. This landmark
publication belongs on the shelves of every library in America. Highly
recommended for the breadth of its coverage and the depth of its
commentaries." -aem