# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Calliope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Calliope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calliope)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/61 "2002-07-16T19:47:26Z")
My 8 and 11-year old daughter and I all memorized Longfellow’s _Paul Rever’s Ride_ this year. ---
**Author:** ![xcheopis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xcheopis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xcheopis)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/62 "2002-07-16T21:00:46Z")
Long poems I memorized in my youth: **How The Grinch Stole Christmas** by _Dr. Seuss_; **The Jabberwock** , **The Walrus and The Carpenter** , **You Are Old, Father William** , and Large sections of **The Hunting of the Snark** , all by _Lewis Carroll_; **Kubla Khan** by _Samuel Taylor Coleridge_; **The Pied Piper of Hamlin** by _Robert Browning_; **The Perfect High or The Quest of Gimmesome Roy** by _Shel Silverstein_. The last is the only one I remember in its entirety, which I find vastly amusing because I memorized it one night while high on acid. Bizarre, huh? ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/63 "2002-07-16T22:00:04Z")
e. e. cumming’s _she being Brand_ It just speaks to me, ya’ know. In a language that’s fairly perverted and forever stuck in the gutter, but speaks nonetheless. 🙂 And just because they cracked my stuff up, both Christopher Marlowe’s _The Passionate Shepherd to His Love_ and the tongue-in-cheek retort of Sir Walter Raleigh’s _The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd_. ---
**Author:** ![Pammipoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/87869e/32.png) [@Pammipoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pammipoo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/64 "2002-07-16T22:23:58Z")
[Ozymandis](http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/shelley2b.html) \*And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! \* I had to memorizeit for 10th grade history. My teacher swore once we learned it, we would never forget it. It took me an hour and a half to remember the name. I think she was mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Doubting\_Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/65 "2002-07-16T23:36:39Z")
Like several here before me: “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” because I had to in about the eighth grade or so. I have almost completely forgotten it. And also like several here before me: “Jabberwocky,” but just because I wanted to, 35 years ago. If I strain my brain, I can still recite it. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/66 "2002-07-17T02:26:34Z")
I had to memorize about half of _The Mermaid_ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in fourth grade (hated it!!). I also had to memorize _Kubla Khan_ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in eighth grade. (That one was slightly better; we got a big kick out of calling him “Samuel Taylor Coleslaw”.) ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631/67 "2002-07-17T03:52:37Z")
_She lived in storm and strife Her soul had such desire For what proud death may bring That it could not endure The common good of life But lived as 'twere a king That packed his marriage day With banneret and pennon, Trumpet and kettledrum, And the outrageous cannon. To bundle time away That the night come._ Yeats got me through some tough times. I used to remember several more but they’ve faded. Things fall apart you know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-poem-youve-memorized/84631.md?page=3)