http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/10/primary-school-children-recite-poetry?newsfeed=true
If the children love the poems then I expect they’ll naturally learn and recite them by heart. I can remember in middle school us learning Wordsworth’s daffodils – didn’t do me any harm – in fact it reinforced my love of poetry. Though on a bad note I suppose it could turn you the other way, I do vividly remember most mornings our class being led into the hall to do hymn singing with Mr Dagnall. I’m sure many from school will have been put right off and may still have the likes of him screaming ‘sing louder’ to ‘if I had a hammer’ or ‘give 😆 me joy in my heart’ running round in their heads from time to time.