Poetry Friday: Why Memorize Poetry? (+ 4 Tips for Effective Memorization)

Memorization gets a bad rap these days. When criticizing a class, students often say something like, “It’s just a lot of memorization!”  We equate memorization with busy work, something tedious that has no purpose. But many of the longest and greatest works of literature—such as Beowulf and the Iliad—existed entirely in memorized form before they were written down. Is there still a point to memorizing poetry even after the invention of writing?

I’d argue yes. I love memorizing poetry, even though it can be hard. Here are a few reasons why I think it’s worth it to commit poems to memory.

4 Must-read Articles for the Philosophical Patriot

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends! I hope you’re having a great day full of grilling, fireworks, and American pride.

Last year, I wrote and defended my senior thesis, which explored the question of how to juggle loyalties to one’s state, country, home, and religion. Despite not being much of the poli-sci type, I enjoyed this topic because it’s something I’ve struggled with in my own life. As a second-generation Hispanic-American and dual citizen, I’d never thought much about the United States as part of my identity.

Mini-Reviews: The 5 Best Novels I’ve Read This Year (So Far!)

Do you ever have so many books that you want to talk about that you can’t figure out which one to write a post on? Enter the mini-review, my favorite cop-out that I actually find more enjoyable to read and write than full-length reviews!

I was planning to list my favorite books I’d read since January 2019, but I couldn’t narrow it down. So after excluding non-fiction and kid lit because I felt as if I were comparing apples to oranges, I came up with a list of the 5 best novels I’ve stumbled across this year.

Theology Thursday: 4 Ancient Faith Podcasts that All Christians Can Enjoy

It’s been a very long time since I’ve done one of these, partially because I’ve been on a theological journey myself. I don’t want to get too personal, but I’ll say briefly that I’ve decided to “swim the Bosphorus,” and I’m now in the process of joining the Orthodox Church. You can ask me about that in comments if you’re interested, but I really don’t want to overshare. I just wanted to explain the new featured image for Theology Thursday and the reason for this post!

Even though I’m heading East myself, I still have a great liking and respect for many aspects of Western Christianity, and I’m always looking for common ground between the traditions of the East and the West. So today I’m going to share 5 podcasts from Ancient Faith Radio that I think any Christian could enjoy, even those who aren’t specifically Orthodox.

Surprised by Loss: Three Atypical Modern Epics

Hey, everyone! Long time no see. Sorry for the long break. My last year of high school has been crazy! But now that I’ve been accepted to college, my thesis has been written and defended, and I GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL (!)—I can get back to blogging.

Today, I’d like to talk about the genre of the epic. No, I’m not going to talk about the Aeneid or The Divine Comedy or Paradise Lost (though you can bring those up in the comments if you want). I’m going to tell you about three of my favorite books (of which there are many), all of which were written in or after the 20th century.

Guest Post at Pages Unbound!

Hi everyone! Sorry for my long absence. School’s been wild. I’m coming out of hibernation to let you all know about my guest post at Pages Unbound for their Tolkien Reading Event. It’s a review of Donald Swann’s song cycle, The Road Goes Ever On, which consists of 7 of Tolkien’s poems set to music.

Tolkien’s Faerian Drama is the Tabletop RPG

“Tabletop RPGs are our modern day Iliad. It’s communal storytelling at its finest[.]” -Marisha Ray

“Enchantment produces a Secondary World into which both designer and spectator can enter.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

In my recent exploration of that fascinating narrative form, the tabletop role-playing game, I have found myself wondering what J.R.R. Tolkien would think of the phenomenon. Dungeons and Dragons, the best-known RPG system, draws heavily on Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth; the first edition of D&D even allowed player characters to play as a “hobbit” before they changed the race name to “halfling” for legal reasons. I can’t help but wonder: what would Tolkien think of this unique way to tell stories, that voice actor and D&D player Marisha Ray calls “our modern day Iliad”?