In Memory Of Dante

Several friends and contacts have been coinciding recently, talking or writing about memories or, more aptly, lack of them, making jokes about that, etc. Meanwhile, and nearly as many are also writing poems, well not quite correct to say they 'wrote', more that they copied from somewhere or from some of those sites that specialised in canned poems about love, royalty, and friendship mainly. I am sure some of these have found their way into your Guestbooks. Many of them are truly beautiful, impressive and touching.

Perhaps due to all that, or else for no particular reason at all, the name of the famous Italian poet of excellence, Dante, came to mind. Not even 100% sure whether his last name was Alighieri (Sorry if I misspelled it, or remember it wrongly; my very elementary Italian learned for fun years ago has gone from my head for far too long). I can't remember either exactly where, or when, I read some of his magnificent poems, most of them I had forgotten, but one thing I read about him, his legendary and mythical memory, had somehow stayed put always. It would pop up once in a while without my willing it to.

He wrote, or somebody else did about him and his memory: -

'One day, Dante was sitting on a rock in front of a cathedral in Florence. A man passed by and asked him: " What's the best mouthful you have ever had?" Dante answered: "An egg."

A year later, the same man passed by to the same spot, where Dante was again sitting, and asked him point blank: "With what?". Without the slightest hesitation, "With salt." replied Dante.'

Now that's some amazing memory. I love poetry and had once upon a time even tried actually to write a few. But I feel that to be really good at at, one ought to read plenty of work by exceptionally good poets and, more importantly, read every one many, many times till you can recite them from memory. Not so that you can copy, but to absorb every morsel of the essence and retain the inspiration they evoke. To do that, the best way is to, as much as possible, form the habit of reading out aloud; this is also the best way I know to learn a foreign language.

This practice not just helps greatly to memorize good verses, but lets you judge whether what you have written is the best you could do, by listening to the 'flow', the use of words or phrases are, or not, the most correct and expressive, within the limitation of the format or rhyme.

Tags:Dante,poetry,memory

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