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In his poem "Forgetfulness," Billy Collins discusses the idea that learning something new displaces some other thing we used to know. He says: "even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay." I started memorizing poetry in college and even now, I like to tell myself that my ability to recite sonnets by Shakespeare and poetry by Hopkins, Dickinson, and Frost explains why I can't name all the presidents anymore, or remember the outcome of various world wars.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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