Passages for Memorization

[tdiaz]

Salve!

I'm teaching a homeschool group using Wheelock - they are younger students, but we've decided to start them slowly with Wheelock, using the workbook and other resources to expand the chapters and spend a lot of time on them.

I'm on something of a "memorize poetry" kick. For my history classes, I'm having students memorize some poem or bits of a longer poem. I'd like to do something similar for Latin. This isn't for them to necessarily grasp it right away, but rather to have some bits of Latin, especially well crafted Latin, jangling around in their head. Any recommendations for passages?

I figure some of Cicero's orations, the opening of the Aeneid. I'm not what one would consider a Latinist (just the local guy who has enough Latin to teach kids), so I'm not coming up with a lot. Recordings of readings would also be excellent. The idea is to give them a memorization task once a month or so, then have them perform it like a poetry reading. Comprehension is excellent, but just the exercise of swimming in the language is what I'm looking for.

Any ideas to help me out?

[bedwere]

Dictionary of quotations (classical)
by Harbottle, Thomas Benfield, d 1904

Published 1897