Knows How to Forget!
poem 433
Knows How to Forget! - meaning Summary
Forgetting Resists Expertise
The speaker wonders why forgetting, presented as an “easy” art, cannot be learned despite schools, science, philosophy, instruments, or books. The poem registers irony and frustration as they catalog intellectual authorities—school, globe, logarithm, philosopher, Rabbi—each unable to teach or patent the capacity to forget. It frames forgetting as a personal, elusive skill that resists formal knowledge and institutional solutions, exposing limits of erudition for emotional labor.
Read Complete AnalysesKnows how to forget! But could It teach it? Easiest of Arts, they say When one learn how Dull Hearts have died In the Acquisition Sacrificed for Science Is common, though, now I went to School But was not wiser Globe did not teach it Nor Logarithm Show How to forget! Say some Philosopher ! Ah, to be erudite Enough to know! Is it in a Book? So, I could buy it Is it like a Planet? Telescopes would know If it be invention It must have a Patent. Rabbi of the Wise Book Don’t you know?
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