Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0329: How to memorize Shakespeare sonnets

Episode Date: June 11, 2015

Don asks about memorizing Shakespearean sonnets. I present a basic method and invite Don to participate in our free Accelerated Poetry course. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Master of Memory 329. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Don submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question asking about how to memorize Shakespearean sonnets. Well, in our upcoming poetry course at masterofmemory.com slash poetry, we'll have methods for memorizing lots of different poetry,

including specific tactics for eight specific Shakespearean sonnets. The information is all going to be out there for free for you to browse through, and it'll probably be sometime this summer or fall that we have it all out there, although we're dripping it out early to people who sign up for early updates at masterofmemory.com slash poetry. For now, I'll give you a rundown on the tactics so that you can see how we're doing this. So let's just break this down. First of all, it is really important to read and listen and recite along throughout the whole process because your mnemonics are going to give you prompts for just different little parts of the poem so that you never get lost and you can

always find your way through it. But it's also very important to get the muscle memory, the sort of oral memory, of actually reciting those lines so that everything between the points falls together smoothly. As far as specific review would go, I would choose two keywords per line and try to restrict it just to two keywords, two words that comprise the meaning of the line in some way or from which you could be prompted to remember the entire line. So the line, if this be error and upon me proved,

could be reduced simply to error and me or error and proved, depending on which one seems to work well for you. To help you review, you can put those two keywords on flashcards. And you can, I mean, basically you'll just be quizzing on maybe three parts of the poem. The first four lines, the second four lines, and the last six lines. And so each card would have eight to ten keywords on them, although that might be overkill. You might put fewer keywords on each flashcard. But don't spend too much time on the flashcards. Spend more time listening to and, you know, kind of getting the muscle memory of reciting along with the poetry.

The keywords are just to test the effectiveness of your mnemonics. So as far as the mnemonics go, the way that you're actually going to memorize the poem is I would use a short palace that has 14 locations in a small area. So that might be one room in a house, saving all the other rooms for other Shakespearean sonnets or anything like that. So choose one in a house subdivide it into 14 locations and then place those keywords in those locations or place the idea of each line in each of those locations and place them in order around the room that way you can remember in order everything about the poem because you just think around the room in order and you can remember each line. So the error and proved, let's say that the location that

corresponds to, because it's the second to last line in that sonnet, it's the second to last place in your room. Maybe it's right by the door before you leave the room and it could be in a drawer or something. I'm looking just across my room at a bunch of drawers next to my door, if it was the last, you know, the second to last station in my palace, and I would put a bunch of jumbled up, crumpled up papers in there, and that represents the errors, and they just have me written all over them, but with typos, maybe misspelled, misspelling the word me. And so that's how I would do it.

If this be error and upon me proved. And so anytime you think of those drawers by the door, you think of that line. Just apply that to every single line in the sonnet. And then thinking around the room, you can think of every single line in the sonnet. And then it's just a matter of reciting while thinking through that. And you'll remember the whole thing eventually so well that you don't need this little memory palace at all. Again, we're going to have these tactics and a pretty progressive course

starting from the most simple to more complicated at masterofmemory.com slash poetry. Now, listeners have asked about how they can support Master of Memory and keep this show free for the world, particularly if you don't have a lot of time or any money to spend. So right now, I'm going to tell you that, believe it or not, right now, at this moment, the number one way that you can support the show doesn't require any money of you, is very easy, and will only take a few seconds, and it requires nothing but your smartphone in your hand right now. So listen, if you've enjoyed listening to this show, and you have a smartphone right now with an internet connection, there's no excuse for you not to do this.

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