| Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, | |
| 2. | To the pæan of the bells—of the bells; |
| Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, | |
| 4. | To the throbbing of the bells, of the bells, bells, bells, |
| 1. | To the sobbing of the bells; keeping time, time, time, |
| As he knells, knells, knells, in a happy Runic rhyme, | |
| 4. | To the rolling of the bells, of the bells, bells, bells, |
| 8. | To the tolling of the bells, of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells; |
| 1. | To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. |
Carrying these suggestions to the text, they help fix the exact number of times the word “bells” occurs in each line. There are other legitimate ways to assist a poor memory to master these lines, but whatever is done let no one ever think of resorting to the unthoughtive, brainless process of endless repetition.
Poe’s “Bells,” being a difficult selection to learn, furnishes, as all difficult selections do, numerous opportunities for applying Analysis to fix the lines in memory. Hence it should be mastered and often recited by all who would learn to memorise poetry or prose, in, at the very least, one-fifth of the time required by the old mind-wandering process of rote learning. [←ToC]
ANALYTIC SUBSTITUTIONS.
ANOTHER METHOD FOR REMEMBERING DATES AND FIGURES.
This lesson in figures is given for the benefit of those who have not yet mastered Numeric Thinking. The pupil will appreciate its practical value the moment he masters the key to it.
This is given in the next few pages, and it will be found to be easy of comprehension and interesting to a surprising degree.
The whole thing is in a nutshell. Numbers, as such, are abstractions and hard to be remembered. To make them hard to forget, we translate them into words or phrases. These are easily remembered and they always instantly give back the figures they stand for.
We represent the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0, by certain consonants; and then, as the vowels [a, e, i, o, u, and y, together with w] have no numerical value assigned to them, we turn dates or any numbers into translating words, which will always tell us precisely the figures the words stand for.
As this simple process enables us to remember any dates or numbers with absolute certainty, the pupil will be pleased to know that he can learn how it is done by only one thoughtful perusal.