HOW TO MEMORIZE A SELECTION
Do not learn a selection simply by rote—that is, by repeating it parrot-like over and over again—but fix it in the mind by a careful and detailed analysis of the thought. As you practise aloud, train your eye to take in as many words as possible, then look away from the book as you recite them aloud. This will give the memory immediate practise and will tend to make it self-reliant.
Having chosen a selection, read it over first in a general way to secure an impression of it in its entirety. Then read it a second time, giving particular attention to each part. Consult a dictionary for the correct meaning and pronunciation of every word about which you are in doubt. Next underline the emphatic words—those which you think best express the most important thoughts. Underscoring one line for emphatic words and two lines for the most emphatic will do for this purpose. Now indicate the various pauses, both grammatical and rhetorical, by drawing short perpendicular lines between the words where they occur. In a general way use one line for a short pause, two lines for a medium pause, and three lines for a long pause. On the margin of the selection you may make other notes, such as the dominant feeling, transitions, changes of rate, force and pitch, special effects, gestures, facial expression, etc.
There is, of course, nothing arbitrary about this work of analysis. Its purpose is to make the student think, to analyze, to be painstaking. The following annotated selection should be carefully considered. Words on which chief emphasis is to be placed are printed in small capitals; those on which less emphasis is to be placed, in italics. It is not intended to be mechanical, but suggestive. After a few selections have been analyzed in this way, pausing and emphasis, and many other elements of expression, will largely take care of themselves.
"To BE || or NOT | to be, || that | is the question:—|||
Whether | 't is nobler | in the mind, || to suffer
The slings | and arrows || of outrageous fortune; ||
Or | to take arms | against a sea | of troubles, ||
And by opposing || end them? ||| —To DIE,— || to SLEEP, |||
No more;—||| and, by a sleep, || to say we end
The heart-ache, | and the thousand natural shocks ||
That flesh is heir to,—||| 't is a consummation ||
Devoutly | to be wish'd. ||| To DIE,—||| to SLEEP:—|||
To SLEEP ||| perchance to DREAM: || ay, | there's the rub; ||
For in that sleep | of death || what dreams | MAY | come, ||
When we have shuffled off | this mortal coil, ||
Must give us pause. ||| There's the respect, |
That makes calamity | of so long life: |||
For who would bear | the whips and scorns | of time, ||
The oppressor's wrong, || the proud man's contumely, ||
The pangs | of despis'd love, || the law's delay, ||
The insolence | of office, || and the spurns |
That patient merit | of the unworthy takes, ||
When he himself | might his quietus make ||
With a bare bodkin? || who'd these fardels bear, ||
To grunt and sweat | under a weary life, ||
But that the dread | of SOMETHING | after death—||
The undiscover'd country, || from whose bourn |
No traveler returns,—|| puzzles the will, ||
And makes us rather bear | those ills we have, ||
Than fly | to others || that we know not of? |||
Thus CONSCIENCE || does make COWARDS | of us all; ||
And thus | the native hue | of resolution ||
Is sicklied o'er | with the pale cast | of thought; ||
And enterprises | of great pith and moment ||
With this regard | their currents turn awry, ||
And lose | the name || of ACTION."