# what is the longest poem you've memorized? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 30, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631 "2001-09-30T15:29:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![berdollos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@berdollos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berdollos)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/1 "2001-09-30T15:29:09Z")
My own memory is not too good and I can’t say I’ve memorized a long one. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/2 "2001-09-30T15:37:20Z")
In 8th grade, I memorized [The Cremation of Sam McGee](http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/servic4c.html) by Robert W. Service, and recieved 8 extra credit A’s in my Literature class for doing so. Quite a funny poem, I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/3 "2001-09-30T15:44:46Z")
This from S. T. Coleridge (1772-1834) **Kubla Khan** _In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round._ Magnificent. There is more, of course, but while I was in the process of memorising the rest of the lines, I was interrupted by a chap who said he was from Porlock. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/4 "2001-09-30T15:59:11Z")
There’s a good chance someone will happen along here and post this memorable couplet: _This thread of yours, with all propriety Is better served in Cafe Society._ ---
**Author:** ![Davidbw1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7993a0/32.png) [@Davidbw1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Davidbw1)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/5 "2001-09-30T16:09:28Z")
Lewis Carrol’s _The Jabberwocky_ ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/6 "2001-09-30T16:11:24Z")
I’ve memorized a couple of longish ones: 1. Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”; 2. the first part of the prologue to Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_ (ending with “that them hath holpen when that they were sick”); 3. and, of course, Adams’ “Schrödinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!” ---
**Author:** ![xcheopis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xcheopis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xcheopis)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/7 "2001-09-30T16:34:07Z")
I’ve memorized three Lewis Carroll poems, **Father William** , **The Walrus and The Carpenter** and **The Jabberwocky**. I can still quote extensively from any one of them but I no longer know them in their entirety. I memorized **The Pied-Piper of Hamlin** in Junior High School and have forgotten most of it. The only long poem I can still recite with ease is **The Perfect High or The Quest of Gimmesome Roy** by Shel Silverstein, which goes to show that anything undertaken under the influence of drugs has a profound and lasting influence. Ok, it doesn’t but I think it’s funny that the one long poem I remember was memorized in one night while I was tripping. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/8 "2001-09-30T16:38:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Davidbw1 \* > \*\*Lewis Carrol’s _The Jabberwocky_ \*\* Me, too. I always figured a mome rath looked like a cross between a mushroom and a wombat. Slithy toves are like agave cactus with mucous. Borogroves are like squat, leafy, badgers with party hats. Manxome means gnarlily icky. Galumphing is was Sally Struthers does when leaving Old Country Buffet. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/9 "2001-09-30T16:40:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rysdad \* > \*\*Galumphing is was Sally Struthers does when leaving Old Country Buffet. \*\* was = what ---
**Author:** ![Peta\_Tzunami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b487fb/32.png) [@Peta\_Tzunami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peta_Tzunami)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/10 "2001-09-30T16:52:37Z")
_Daffodils_ by Wordsworth and _Jabberwocky_ by Carroll (not much interested in checking line counts to see which is actually the longest). ---
**Author:** ![dunne\_u.wurrie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@dunne\_u.wurrie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dunne_u.wurrie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/11 "2001-09-30T17:01:51Z")
“There once was a man from Nantucket…” ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/12 "2001-09-30T17:03:43Z")
_Choose Somthing Like a Star_ by Robert Frost and the “Gabriel Knight 1 Exposition Poem” are the longest that I can just rattle off. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/13 "2001-09-30T17:24:56Z")
Another _Jabberwockey_ checking in. I mostly did it to bond with my mom, she’s got just about every Lewis Carrol poem ever memorized. I think it’s all still up there… ---
**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/14 "2001-09-30T17:26:54Z")
There once was a fellow from Tripoli Who liked to make love rather nippily. Complained one young lass, While rubbing her ass, “Less teethily, please, and more lippily!” * * * Peace, TN\*hippily ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/15 "2001-09-30T17:38:18Z")
Tenth grade English class asssignment, grading based on number of lines memorized. I chose one from Don Marquis’ “Archy and Mehitabel” that started out: the patagonian penguin is a most peculiar bird … It wasn’t a very interesting poem. But I think it was at least 100 “lines” and my English teacher conceded. =Sue ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/16 "2001-09-30T17:53:56Z")
“The Walrus and the Carpenter” ---
**Author:** ![snermy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@snermy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snermy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/17 "2001-09-30T18:28:00Z")
I used to memorize poems on long drives (you only have to look down at it every now and then 😉 The longest was Dylan Thomas’ _Fern Hill_, which is probably my all time favorite. Just found out I can’t go straight through it anymore… Shortest poem? We dance around in a ring and suppose But the Secret sits in the middle and knows _R.Frost_ (any errors, mine) ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/18 "2001-09-30T19:18:11Z")
I also memorized “The Cremation of Sam McGee” By Robert Service. “There are strange things done in the midnight sun…” ---
**Author:** ![xcheopis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xcheopis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xcheopis)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/19 "2001-09-30T19:46:07Z")
Oh yes, when I was 9 I memorized **How The Grinch Stole Christmas** by Dr. Seuss. I was playing the part of the Grinch for our Girl Scout play and it was just easier to memorize the whole book than try to remember only my part. I’m not sure if that counts as a “poem” but it was pretty long. I didn’t memorize all of **The Cremation of Sam McGee** but it was one of my favourites. Spooky but funny. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/20 "2001-09-30T20:21:59Z")
dunne u. wurrie, I see you have been talking to Mr. Garibaldi again! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631.md?page=2)