'They Flash Upon That Inward Eye': Poet Recitation and American Readers.

Reciting poetry in school between 1917 and 1950 sustained nineteenth-century texts and assumptions about the moral functions of learning verse. Moreover, a sample of readers reported that, over a lifetime, schoolroom poetry built confidence, served as mental diversion, fostered family ties, shaped individual, communal, and national identity, strengthened connections between poetry and youth, augmented religious teachings, and provided aesthetic pleasure.