# Have you ever had a poem stuck in your head? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308 "2008-04-29T02:47:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308/21 "2008-04-29T17:24:41Z")
A particular recent phase of therapy has gotten the opening stanza of Larkin’s _This Be The Verse_ stuck in my head, because it is so true: _They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you._ ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308/22 "2008-04-29T17:49:36Z")
When I was a wee lad I did a book report on Robert Frost, our Online encyclopedia had _Fire and Ice_ read by Frost himself. It’s was haunting and I’ve remembered it ever since. As far as stuck in my head like a song, no poems ever done that. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308/23 "2008-04-29T18:50:23Z")
I get some of the dratted poetry from the _Pern_ series stuck in my head all of the time. It’s not even good! Also: _English teeth, English teeth, Always having fun Chomping down on bits of fish And sausages half done!_ And _The grizzly bear is huge and wild It has devoured the infant child The infant child is not aware It has been eaten by the bear._ Also bits of Emily Dickinson, and _I Had a Duck-Billed Platypus When I Was Up at Trinity_, and parts of _A Song for Simeon_, especially _Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation Grant us thy peace. Before the stations of the mountain of desolation, Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow, Now at this birth season of decease, Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word, Grant Israel’s consolation To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow._ ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308/24 "2008-04-29T19:56:30Z")
On a cheerier note, I’ve had [Auden’s](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/o-tell-me-the-truth-about-love/) \*O Tell me the Truth about Love \* stuck in my head for the last week… At least the first verse > [@](#): > > Some say love’s a little boy, > And some say it’s a bird, > Some say it makes the world go around, > Some say that’s absurd, > And when I asked the man next-door, > Who looked as if he knew, > His wife got very cross indeed, > And said it wouldn’t do. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308/25 "2008-04-29T21:38:25Z")
When I am very tired and not yet asleep, I hear: When I lay me down to St. Ives, I tried to fart, but soiled my britches. Death could not wait, either, and he did the same. Richard Corey went home last night, And prayed the lord my soul to keep. And prayed my shoes their soles to keep. Butt soft 13-watt light through yonder Widow Banks, It is the east, and Juliet is the one this week. I write the songs that no one else can stand, Of broken hearts among the clean white sand. I broke her heart with the back of my mind, I broke her heart with the back of my mind. That’s when I realize my brain is set on Shuffle. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308/26 "2008-04-29T22:41:55Z")
_Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead…_ (Wilfred Owen). Over and over and over and over again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-poem-stuck-in-your-head/447308.md?page=1)