I like the idea of memorising things, especially useful things, I'm just not very good at it. This year (2007) I've started on various poems, working my way up from sonnets to The Lady of Shalott (having a rhyme scheme, piles of alliteration, and at least a nominal storyline help) and eventually I came to the Willy, Willy, Harry, Steve poem - which would have been very useful, but, not knowing the storyline, it wouldn't stay in my head. So I decided to research and write my own version; in the process of making it 'easier' for myself to memorise, I consumed a great many hours and made it a great deal longer.
Ten sixty-six Will came in haste.
In eighty-seven his son Red-faced.
Bro Henry in eleven hundred.
Thirty-five Coz Stephen plundered
England from Hal's daughter Maud;
In forty-one she fought and warred
And won and lost. In fifty-four
Came Henry II and Eleanor.
For ten years ruled King Rich the Lion,
And John Lackland in ninety-nine.
In twelve-fifteen John signed the Carta;
Hal, aged nine, ruled one year after.
Edward in twelve-seventy-two
And Ed in thirteen-seven, too,
And Ed the third in twenty-seven,
When Isabelle sent Dad to heaven.
In seventy-seven Dick ruled the folk,
Then cousin Henry Bolingbroke
In ninety-nine usurped the prize.
Fourteen-thirteen Henry Five.
Hal Six, a babe in twenty-two,
Wore the red with Meg d'Anjou.
Then Ed of York in sixty-one
(Except, in seventy, seven months).
But Ed his boy was sent uncrowned
In eighty-three into the Tower
By Richard. Two years later Tudor
Henry killed one York and wooed a-
Nother. In fifteen-oh-nine
Came Henry Eight, and six wives fine.
(Annulled, beheaded, birthing died,
Annulled, beheaded - one survived.)
In forty-seven Ed, aged ten.
In fifty-three the Nine Days' Queen
Preceded Mary. Fifty-eight
Began Good Bess's Golden Age.
James Stuart started sixteen-three.
In twenty-five came Charles the Wee -
Five foot four, but drew the line
At four foot five in forty-nine.
In fifty-three the Commonwealth
Elected Cromwell to protect.
In fifty-eight Dick Tumbled down.
In sixty Merry Charles was crowned.
James the second, eighty-five.
Eighty-nine came Will and wife -
Queen Mary died in ninety-four
But William waited eight years more.
Seventeen-oh-two ruled Anne over.
Fourteen came forth George of Hanover.
(Old James Frances Edward Stuart,
His claim, they said, had nothing to it.
Young Charles Edward Louis Johnny
Casimir Sylvester "Bonnie"
Maria Stuart - for his mother -
Just Pretending like the other.)
Twenty-seven George Two. Sixty
George the Third who went all ditzy.
George the Fourth in eighteen-twenty.
Thirty William sang a shanty.
Victoria in seven-and-thirty.
Nineteen-oh-one Edward "Bertie".
Nineteen-ten came George, called Windsor.
Ed in thirty-six a fizzer;
George Six next. Since fifty-two
Elizabeth of Tuvalu,
Barbados, Solomons, Bahamas,
UK, Canada, Grenada,
Belize, Antigua and Barbuda,
Papua New Guinea, bright Saint Lucia,
New Zealand Aotearoa[1], Jamaica,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, fair Australia,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
She's Head of State in all sixteen.
[1] At this point one may insert the somewhat cryptic and extremely unfinished:
[New Zealand Aotearoa], whose herald
Was, in fifty-four, FitzGerald.
Forsaith three days 2 September --
Neither was the one, remember.
Sewell saw well fifty-six
And had the Colonial Secret'ryship.
Will Fox matched his thirteen days,
Then Stafford was stationed home and away,
But was out-Foxed in sixty-one.
In sixty-two Al Domett won
(So Auckland lost); back to [Jamaica]
(This is set in the 19th century. Note that FitzGerald and Forsaith weren't actually premiers of New Zealand; Henry Sewell was the first to have that honour. Stafford travelled outside NZ a lot, and whether this helped keep him in power so long or helped Fox get him out of it I don't know. Domett was the chap who came up with the idea to move the capital from Auckland to Wellington, being more central to the country as a whole.)
I also started work on (and soon got distracted from) a prologue:
It started in Wessex, century eight:
In seventy-one came Alfred the Great.
In ninety-nine King Edward the Elder
Brought the Danes and Mercia to order.
Completion may be some time: my current memorisation project is the psalms, in Latin, in order to learn that language better.
Back to my writing page, or the hobbies page, or the main page.
Email me if you've got any suggestions for improvement.