Each day this week, the Book Review will present a new essay and game, along with a series of celebrity readings, designed to help you memorize a delightful poem: “Recuerdo,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Today’s letter comes from Joumana Khatib, an editor at the Book Review. Dear readers, Welcome to Day 3 of the Poetry Challenge. Yesterday we peered into the mechanics of “Recuerdo,” popping its hood to understand how the poem works. Today we take a broader view, placing it in the feisty, glamorous, occasionally exhausting stable of Great New York City Poetry. Edna St. Vincent Millay was probably the ideal writer to memorialize a late-night ferry ride in verse. She was wildly popular in her day — The Times even reported on her case of appendicitis — and her writing was deeply attuned to New York City’s energy. You don’t have to love New York to love “Recuerdo.” But once you know it by heart, you’ll have a piece of the city to carry with you anywhere. Please don’t sleep on today’s extremely satisfying game, in which we present lines of emoji for you to translate into lines of “Recuerdo.” Who ever said intellectual calisthenics shouldn’t be fun? ⛴️ |
