Learn a poem by heart to stay sharp, Duchess urges public
THE Duchess of Cornwall is supporting a call for the public to learn poetry by heart to stave off “senior moments”, disclosing she recites poems to herself as she goes to sleep.
The Duchess, who took over from the Queen as patron of The Royal Society of Literature in June, said it is “a very good idea” for people to challenge themselves and their grandchildren to learn a poem by memory.
Reciting one of her own childhood favourites, she said she often ran through poems as she waited for sleep to come, finding them much easier to recall in the peace and quiet.
The Duchess, who counts children’s literacy among her key causes, said she inherited a fondness for poetry from her mother, who “adored” it and read it aloud.
She has now taken part in a Radio 4 documentary with Gyles Brandreth, who is campaigning to convince BBC listeners of the joy of learning a “poem by heart”.
Dame Judi Dench also contributes, disclosing that she can still recite the whole of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“You do remember these things,” the Duchess said of poems she had memorised
‘You’re in half a trance anyway, it comes back to you quite fast. In fact, I knew it quite well last night’
as a child. “I mean it [perfect recall] sort of veers off into the middle distance after a bit because I think senior moments kick in.”
“They don’t have to kick in,” Brandreth told her, citing scientific research which shows it “helps adults stave off dementia”.
The broadcaster then challenged the Duchess to recite Hilaire Belloc’s cautionary tale of Matilda, which she said she had learned “probably having told a terrible fib to somebody” in her childhood.
As Brandreth relayed how he enjoys trying to recall poems to relax in bed, the Duchess said: “It’s great fun just to see how far you can get.
“Because when you’re under no pressure, unlike sitting here talking to you, it comes back more easily. You’re in a half trance anyway, it comes back to you quite fast. In fact, I knew it quite well last night.”
Brandreth, 70, told the Duchess that he wanted people to try to learn a poem by Christmas, asking his own grandchildren to recite one to him as a gift.
“That’s a very good idea,” said the Duchess. “That’s a challenge.”
The programme will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 1.30pm tomorrow, ahead of National Poetry Day on Thursday.
The Duchess of Cornwall has backed an unusual idea for a Christmas present. It is to challenge a child or grandchild to learn a poem by the day and recite it. As the Duchess reveals, she still knows by heart poems like Belloc’s “Matilda”, the entertaining tale of a little girl given to telling lies who is burnt to ashes when her house catches fire, as no one believes her cries for help. Another favourite is “Night Mail”, Auden’s jog-trot celebration of the train hurrying letters to Scotland while the folk of Glasgow and Aberdeen “continue their dreams”. This fits in with the Duchess’s habit of recalling verse as she falls asleep. The only danger is to get stuck (like the train on the gradient to Beattock summit, at 1,016 ft) and have to hop out of bed to check it in the book. Then you must start the journey into sleep all over again at Euston.