andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> If you know stuff by heart:
>
> (a) you can use it without having to look it up,
> making research, writing, and discussion better; you
> can also amuse yourself by going over poetry, drama,
> or whatever in your head; and it helps,
If you are 16 snd it is your first night in a polio ward; if all the staff are busy across the hall treating a dying patient; if your neck hurts like hell; if your butt hurts like hell; if you are lying on a very hard mattress with no pillow; if you have excruciating gas pains -- I hadn't memorized much by then, and what I had memorized wasn't of great quality, but repeating my small stock of memorized verse over and over sort of helped me get through the night.
Carrol