Did they enjoy it when I quoted MacBeth --"Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand, Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still..." Or would they have preferred a recital of Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," or perhaps "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," or even Poe's "Annabel Lee?" You've heard of contented cows and playing music to them while they are being milked; yet it never occurred to me that when I repeated "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in its petty pace from day to day" that I might be influencing milk production.
No matter your age you remember having to memorize and then recite in class poems and soliloquies from plays, especially those written by Shakespeare. If you are like me you still remember a few lines but that's it, a few lines, as from Hamlet about all I can recall is "Poor Yorick, I knew him well." I can do a little better with MacBeth but despite having studied Henry V in the last 15 years, I can recite none of it.
It would be called multitasking now but it was just expected when I was in school. I would have selections to learn and chores to do so I did them at the same time, mouthing Shakespeare out loud while milking the cows. I never gave a thought to what the cows thought about it. Perhaps, it would be worth a federal grant to study whether reading poetry to cows increases their milk production. Surely, the funds could come from those billions going to build solar panels and other alternative energy projects..
No matter your age you remember having to memorize and then recite in class poems and soliloquies from plays, especially those written by Shakespeare. If you are like me you still remember a few lines but that's it, a few lines, as from Hamlet about all I can recall is "Poor Yorick, I knew him well." I can do a little better with MacBeth but despite having studied Henry V in the last 15 years, I can recite none of it.
It would be called multitasking now but it was just expected when I was in school. I would have selections to learn and chores to do so I did them at the same time, mouthing Shakespeare out loud while milking the cows. I never gave a thought to what the cows thought about it. Perhaps, it would be worth a federal grant to study whether reading poetry to cows increases their milk production. Surely, the funds could come from those billions going to build solar panels and other alternative energy projects..
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