By Heart

Beatrice Warde, "By Heart," written during the London Blitz and quoted in Francis Meynell's My Lives (London: Bodley Head, 1971), p. 176:

When will you understand?
Mark what I say:
Whatever you hold in your hand
Will be blown away.

Must you learn for yourself?
Listen, take warning:
Whatever you leave on the shelf
Will be gone by morning.

Soon you must play your part.
What are you learning?
Get it by heart! By heart!
I have seen books burning.

A related post: Every Man's Anthology