Yes. I've read many primary source documents that had people remembering extensive amounts of poetry for recitation. I recall one letter stating that a person the letter writer and recipient knew memorizing a 32 stanza long song in one reading. This talent to memorize large amounts of information quickly is a skill we no longer use, except if you are an actor or actress. Moreover, the skill of oration and rhetoric were skills most schools taught in the 19th century. You would find that most school books of this period put a very high value on poetry and reading of speeches. It was considered a way of preparing children for life. You were very much judged on your ability to use the English language with finesse. Consider this table of contents from the 1879 McGuffey Reader: https://mcguffeyreaders.ipower.com/pics/6THREAD2.jpg Many schools today would not consider this sophisticated literature suitable for a 6th grade. Instead we do not generally see such assignments until high school. Of course, children primarily memorized this content and did not necessarily understand it.