Comprehension: Poetry Provides Gateway to Past for Alzheimer Sufferers

Alzheimer's sufferers find it difficult to recall recent events and so can easily feel isolated and lonely, but one association in Stratford-upon-Avon in the UK is using poetry and song to recover long-buried memories.

Watch the video and answer the questions below.  Decide if the statements are True or False.

1.The organization, ‘Kissing it Better’, has been reading poetry to Alzheimer sufferers for four years.
a. True
b. False

2. All the volunteers from ‘Kissing it Better’ were former actors from the ‘Royal Shakespeare Company’.
a. True
b. False

3. Experts believe that poetry can be a part of a cure for Alzheimer’s.
a. True
b. False

For transcript and answers see below.

Transcript and Answers:

Miriam and Margaret have Alzheimer's and struggle to remember what happened last week let alone ten minutes ago.
But when they hear a few lines from a poem learnt decades ago at school, the memories come flooding back.

 “We did talk a certain amount of poetry at home always. I think my aunts knew that when I was small, and my mother you know, they all knew it, and so I can't remember life without it.”

For four years, the organisation 'Kissing it Better' has used poetry as a means of fighting memory loss.  Young people from local schools, here in Stratford-upon-Avon in central England, visit the elderly in nursing homes, giving poetry recitals and singing songs. 

 “When they’re feeling sad or lonely or they can’t connect very easily, if somebody says a poem that they knew so well 60-70 years ago, they suddenly smile because they found something that they remember and when they have that memory, along with it comes the school days, the war time, the family, the countryside.  So it’s that important anchor in what is a very bewildering world if you have dementia.”

And these recitals don't just benefit those on the receiving end.

“I feel like I can give something to the community, and they've given stuff to us and I want to give it back to them, and I hope, in a few years' time, when I'm old, people will come and visit me, and read to me, and sing to me!”

Stratford-upon-Avon is the birthplace of Shakespeare, and even former actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company take part reciting sonnets by the Bard.

 “You get something back from them, you see that glimmer in their eye and it’s wonderful when suddenly they join in with a line.”

Experts say that the use of poetry cannot cure Alzheimer's, but there's no doubt it brings sufferers comfort and with it confidence from a bygone era. 

Answers:

1. a
2. b
3. b

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