I had a few faculty members during my time in college that insisted that we memorize poetry; I rebelled. . . even though I did understand what they were getting at. Now that we’re thrown text at us from so many angles and directions, I think I understand even better what the value of this work might be. . . In some ways, it returns us to Hank Lazer trying to get us to breath together and self-consciously. What can we do to force ourselves to become self-aware of the beauty and possibilities associated with language? Maybe even self-aware of the beauty of our own language use?
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fa200fall2011instructor 
I think that in order to truly memorize something, like a poem, not just remember the words for a test, and forget them the very next day, you need to be able to understand what you are memorizing. I guess that is perhaps why professors like us to memorize poetry because once we understand it, we can appreciate why the author used the language he did, and like you said, find beauty in our language.
Writing, memorizing or even speaking has no point if you do not understand as to what is you are being forced to say. One must feel passionate about the topic at hand.
I agree with both of these comments. Things such as songs or poems that we like are easy to remember and memorize because we enjoy the message or tune of them. I have memorized so many things to make a good grade or do well in a class that i forget as soon as i leave the room and received my A.
I always had a hard time understanding poetry, but I was always godd at remembering poems. I always just read it a couple of times, practice saying it a couple of times, and I have it memorized
I sure hope that teachers are still encouraging students to memorize poems. I always loved doing so, perhaps because it was something I was good at. But I think it could help improve one’s vocabulary by doing it as well.