# A Verse Game
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 27, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351 "2003-01-27T22:48:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Alto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alto)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/1 "2003-01-27T22:48:21Z")
Have you guys ever played Bouts Rimés? (I did try a search, but you might have done it under a different name.) The idea is that one person gives a famous line of poetry, and the next has to cap it with a new ending. Some of my favorites have been:
To be or not to be, that is the question.
Can anyone offer an alternate suggestion?
Oh cuckoo! shall I call thee bird or but a wandering voice?
State the alternate preferred, with reasons for your choice.
Full fathom five thy father lies.
I pushed him. I apologize.
(None of these are my own.)
Anyway, there are a lot of people here who I think would be good at it.
Here’s one to start with:
Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt…
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/2 "2003-01-27T23:26:37Z")
Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt,
I need a softer warmer pelt.
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### Author:  [@binx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/binx)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/3 "2003-01-28T00:23:47Z")
HEY…was that your HAND I just felt?
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### Author:  [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/4 "2003-01-28T00:43:03Z")
A rose by any other name
can’t cash its checks.
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### Author:  [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2003, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/5 "2003-01-28T02:06:10Z")
A Nat King Cole song, not literature, but one I was proud of nevertheless:
“I have often walked down this street before
But I’ve never picked things from the bins to eat before”.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/6 "2003-01-28T03:01:07Z")
True Thomas lay on Huntlie bank,
'Twas three days dead, and boy he stank.
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### Author:  [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/7 "2003-01-30T02:46:35Z")
The boar’s head, as I understand,
is the rarest dish in all the land.
It’s just as good whether fresh or canned;
oh what a pity it’s been banned.
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/8 "2003-01-30T03:28:19Z")
Wordsworth’s First Draft
I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Like a great big slice
Of American cheese.
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/9 "2003-01-30T03:35:15Z")
Opps! Kind of missed the point of the game.
Okay, here’s my suggestion:
In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree…
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### Author:  [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/10 "2003-01-30T04:02:08Z")
In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree,
And there within were dancing girls for Mongols all to come and see!
(If we can all get the basic premise of the game, this should be fun.)
Let us go then, you and I…
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### Author:  [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/11 "2003-01-30T04:08:41Z")
Let us go then, you and I,
And spread the laundry out to dry.
Once upon a midnight dreary…
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### Author:  [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/12 "2003-01-30T04:14:30Z")
I built a wicked-clever database query
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…
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### Author:  [@petcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/petcat)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/13 "2003-01-30T04:27:00Z")
I’d rhyme with that if I thought I could
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/14 "2003-01-30T04:38:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by petcat \*
> \*\*I’d rhyme with that if I thought I could
> But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? \*\*
I had twenty beers; God how my head aches!
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
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### Author:  [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/15 "2003-01-30T05:32:27Z")
And the strangest ones are so much fun!
Can I compare thee to a summer’s day?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/16 "2003-01-30T05:53:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> There are strange things done in the midnight sun
where the laundry fades and the colors run.
All that is gold does not glitter
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### Author:  [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/17 "2003-01-30T05:58:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chronos \*
> \*\*where the laundry fades and the colors run.
>
> All that is gold does not glitter \*\*
No time on this one shall I fritter!
Listen, my children, and you shall hear…
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### Author:  [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/18 "2003-01-30T07:14:41Z")
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
A tale of ninety-nine bottles of beer!
A little learning is a dangerous thing …
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### Author:  [@petcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/petcat)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/19 "2003-01-30T10:29:38Z")
A little learning is a dangerous thing …
But all that beer and your head will sing!
They bore him barefac’d on the bier…
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### Author:  [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2003, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-verse-game/151351/20 "2003-01-30T11:09:05Z")
They bore him barefac’d on the bier…
“Twas Anthrax!” they cried, frozen in fear
The past is such a curious creature…
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