By rote

[camlan]

My grandfather's school had Declamation Day every Friday and students were expected to memorize and recite pretty long passages and poems. Well into his 90s, Grandpa could still recite all of John Greenleaf Whittier's "Snow Bound."

We spent every summer at Grandpa's house and he made us learn to memorize and then how to recite. I learned "In Flander's Field," several soliloquies from Shakespeare, "Little Boy Blue," which is way too maudlin for kids, "The Highwayman, (also recited by Anne of Green Gables in one of the books), the entire Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution. And "Trees." (Grandpa knew Joyce Kilmer, the poet, in his WWI days.)

Once we learned a poem, we had to stand in the middle of the living room and recite it, with Grandpa correcting our pronunciation and projection and enunciation (Grandpa was a teacher and had spent years teaching this stuff). Seemed silly at the time, but I'm grateful for the training now, as I have little fear of public speaking.

[Martienne]

Ironically, all of those were just because I liked them. The things I was required to memorize have mostly faded away.

I have the same experience.

The elementary school I went to had choir in 4th and 5th grades for anyone willing to give up half of lunch period + recess on certain days of the week. The teacher made some remark once when we were learning a program of patriotic songs what a shame it is that people tend to only learn the first verse of many of these songs (e.g. The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, etc.). I made it a point to memorize all the verses of these songs after this. I can't sit and recite them but if I start off singing the first verse of any of them I can continue into the following verses, and go all the way through, even though half the time I don't even remember the next line until I'm saying it.

I think I sort of corrupted my ability to memorize things like poems and speeches because I used to have a phobia of forgetting life events and I would write down what happened each day and recite the day's events to myself at bedtime.

[SoCalVal]

Rikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Perry Pembo has fallen into the well!

[lilfox]

When we had to memorize poems in elem school, I always picked Shel Silverstein's works because they were fun and funny.  One teacher insisted I pick a "classic" poet, so I looked through a Robert Frost book and found this:

"At the end of the row, I stepped on the toe of an unemployed hoe.
It rose in offense and struck me a blow on the seat of my sense.
It wasn't to blame but I called it a name
And I must say it dealt me a blow that I felt."

It continues on like that but those first lines have stuck with me.  I remember being happy to find something humorous after reading through Two Roads (which I remember about half of) and some of the other more serious meaningful poems.  I don't think the teacher was that happy - it's hard to have a deep discussion about that one.   

[Catananche]

HHeLiBePCNOFNeNaMgAlSiPSClArKCa said as one word (Ha-HELI-BEP-CNOF-NE-NAM-GAL-SIPS-CLARK-A) are the first twenty elements of the periodic table in Dutch.

[Nibsey]

Oh I wish I looked after my teeth by Pam Ayres

Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins

All the books from the King James Bible in order

The Chicken Licken story

The alphabet in french

[artk2002]

My favourite Hamlet passage: the "How all occasions do inform against me and spur my dull revenge!" soliloquy.

My favorite is "What a piece of work is a man," but I can't quote it.

That's one of my favorites. If you haven't seen the video of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), it's worth it for that speech.

As for things I've learned by rote? It's been a while, but I used to be able to do Goodnight Moon by heart, as well as Big Pumpkin (the joys of being a parent!)

[artk2002]

I sit in solemn silence
on a dull, dark dock,
in a pestilential prison
with a life-long lock;
awaiting the sensation
of a short, sharp shock
from a cheap and chippy chopper
on a big black block.
A dull, dark dock,
a life-long lock
from a cheap and chippy chopper
on a big black block.

So, yeah... It's about  a beheading, but I learned it in drama class when I was in school.

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative."

If you give me cues, I can recite long stretches of G&S. The Nightmare Song from Iolanthe or The Ghost's High Noon from Ruddigore are favorites.

"My eyes are fully open to my awful situation
I shall go at once to Roderick and make him an oration
I shall tell him I've recovered my forgotten moral senses
And I don't care tuppence ha'penny for any consequences"

[Hillia]

I first read Dune (well, finished Dune) the summer before my sophomore year 34 years ago and memorized the Fear Litany:
I will not fear.  Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.  I will face my fear.  I will permit it to pass over me and through me.  And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.  Where there fear has been there will be nothing.  Only I will remain.

[ClaireC79]

Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen
The soldier by Rupert Brooke

[Redsoil]

I love "Dulce et Decorum est"!

For me, quite a few Australian poems.  "Clancy of the Overflow",  "The Man from Snowy River", "The Old Bush School" and various others; bits of Shakespeare and various Catholic prayers.

[Piratelvr1121]

Some parts of Desiderata.

Go placidly amongst the noise and haste
And remember what peace their may be in silence
As far as possible, be on good terms with all persons
Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others,
Even the dull and ignorant,
For they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
For they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself to others, you will become vain and bitter
For always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself

*bunch I haven't memorized*

You are a child of the universe
No less than the trees and the stars
And whether or not it is clear to you,
The universe is unfolding as it should. 

For all it's sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
It is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful, strive to be happy.

[Sharnita]

Bible verses and large portions of Luther's Cathechism.

[BatCity]

"The Ballad of East and West" by Rudyard Kipling.

Interesting, isn't it, that these things stick with you?  I can still recite the whole poem (takes about ten minutes) almost forty years later.

[jaxsue]

Do the titles of the books of the New Testament count  ?

"Bible drill!"  You may not have had those as a kid, but in my Sunday School classes they used that game to help us learn our Bible books, OT and NT. I can still do pretty well, but not as well as I used to.