Reflection on Reciting a Poem In English Class

"On Turning Ten" by Billy Collins:

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed. 

I think when I recite this poem on the stage and read it out in the class before everyone, I forgot some of the lines. From the beginning of my poem, I almost remember everything, but those lines showed up in my head with a little late. In the second stanza, I think I've done pretty well, because I remember the image that is created by the imagery. However, in the last stanza, I forgot the first line. I think that is because I spent almost most of my brain on imaging the picture for the first few stanza. Remember many things for me is quite impossible, because I think I have less brain cell to remember all of the details of the poem, especially the one that is without the end rhyme. Also, I accidentally chose the poem that didn't rhyme. At first I thought I couldn't memorize all lines in the poem word by word without the end rhyme, but I did it!!! That is one of the greatest achievements that I have ever got. Overall, I think I did a pretty great job.