Having to really memorize Thoughts of a Young Girl by John Ashbery presented itself as a challenge because there was not a lot of connections I could make from one line to another. I found myself repeating the first line over and over, until I felt comfortable with it and then moved on to the next. I continued to add line by line but as I grew closer to the end I just focused on the last half of the poem and would forget the beginning. This process occurred a lot, but it was not until later that I practiced it in fourths or thirds. I tried to remember the first words of each line as well to try to remember the order of the lines. Eventually, I was able to memorize the entire poem, but it took me looking at a particular spot and trying to picture the words in front of me. I felt that this method helped most, especially when I was really reciting the poem, as opposed to just reading it in my head. Once I practiced this for about 15 minutes, I was able to correctly recite the poem without messing up. I did all of this the night before and the next day in the morning I looked over the poem a couple of times before reciting it.
This exercise helped me understand better the emotion behind the thoughts of a young girl. I felt that once I began to read it and say it aloud, I definitely shifted my opinion of the poem. Before I just thought it was a random compilation of lines which made some sense when read together. But as I recited each line on its own, I saw how some lines carried a certain confidence or grace; and other lines carried a more insecure or nostalgic undertone. I thought it was very interesting to be able to feel this when read aloud, especially in singular repetitions. I did play some with my tone of voice for each line, but in the end I focused more on remembering the lines, and the tone seemed to fall into place as I began to recite the poem in class.
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