# What is your favorite poem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401 "2004-05-21T18:37:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/41 "2004-05-22T06:48:24Z")
Years ago, in a college level math class, a professor recited the following when a student was having trouble remembering the difference between _parallel_ and _perpendicular_: > [@](#): > > In days of old, when knights were bold, > And ladies weren’t particular, > They’d put them up against the wall > And do them perpendicular. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Gutgore_Blooddrink)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/42 "2004-05-22T07:10:18Z")
Well, if music counts, as I like the lyrics better than the music, then the entire epic poem album of “Cruelty and the Beast” about the life of one Countess Erszbet Bathory. Some of the lines by Danny Davey I just can’t get over. I also love a lot of poems by Emily Dickinson. “Because I could not stop for Death” comes to mind as a favorite. And of course, anything by Dr. Seuss. He’s a poet-god. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/43 "2004-05-22T07:32:36Z")
> [@Rico](#): > > Years ago, in a college level math class, a professor recited the following when a student was having trouble remembering the difference between _parallel_ and _perpendicular_: > > 😃 In the same vein: _In days of old, when men were bold, And paper had not been invented, They wiped their ass with blades of grass And walked away contented._ Also: _In days of old, when men were bold, And condoms had not been invented, They covered their cocks with dirty old socks And babies were prevented._ ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/44 "2004-05-22T11:19:06Z")
Hart Crane’s _Chaplinesque_: [http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=9462&poem=83998](http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=9462&poem=83998) ---
**Author:** ![ponderer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@ponderer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ponderer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/45 "2004-05-22T12:15:40Z")
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”…Maya Angelou ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/46 "2004-05-22T12:50:26Z")
> [@](#): > > One I remember having to learn by heart while at school was The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. I think I could still recite the entire poem today even after all this time. Me too! I loved that poem SO much when I was a kid. I read it to my class in (I think) third or fourth grade. I had a little problem when I got to the part that goes (quoting from memory) “Look for me by moonlight. Watch for me by moonlight. I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way” because I wasn’t supposed to say “Hell.” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/47 "2004-05-22T12:58:20Z")
[Stay with me, God - A Soldier’s Prayer](http://1stholistic.com/Spl_prayers/prayer_stay-with-me-soldiers-prayer.htm) Stay with me, God. The night is dark, The night is cold: my little spark Of courage dies. The night is long; Be with me, God, and make me strong. I love a game; I love a fight. I hate the dark; I love the light. I love my child; I love my wife. I am no coward. I love Life, Life with its change of mood and shade. I want to live. I’m not afraid, But me and mine are hard to part; Oh, unknown God, lift up my heart. You stilled the waters at Dunkirk And saved Your Servants. All Your work Is wonderful, dear God. You strode Before us down that dreadful road. We were alone, and hope had fled; We loved our country and our dead, And could not shame them; so we stayed The course, and were not much afraid. Dear God that nightmare road! And then That sea! We got there-we were men. My eyes were blind, my feet were torn, My soul sang like a bird at dawn! I knew that death is but a door. I knew what we were fighting for: Peace for the kids, our brothers freed, A kinder world, a cleaner breed. I’m but the son my mother bore, A simple man, and nothing more. But-God of strength and gentleness, Be pleased to make me nothing less. Help me, O God, when Death is near To mock the haggard face of fear, That when I fall-if fall I must- My soul may triumph in the Dust. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/48 "2004-05-22T13:58:07Z")
Of the ones previously mentioned, I’m a big fan of Prufrock, The Highwayman, and The Tiger. I also like Wordsworth’s “Intimations of Immortality” and Yeats’ “Stolen Child.” ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/49 "2004-05-22T14:09:06Z")
\*\*The Lady of Shalott \*\* Boo yah! My favorite poem. Tennyson has been so dissed by modern critics who regard him as a moron. What do they know? I memorized The Lady of Shalott when I was 23, I’m almost 50, and I can still recite it, and I still love that poem. Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote another of my favorite poems, **Spring and Fall.** I named my daughter Margaret after the girl in the poem. I also loved The Highwayman when I was young. What drama! ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/50 "2004-05-22T14:10:46Z")
I love “Prufrock,” but “The Waste Land” is my favorite bit of Eliot: > [@](#): > > She turns and looks a moment in the glass, > Hardly aware of her departed lover; > Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass: > ‘Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.’ > When lovely woman stoops to folly and > Paces about her room again, alone, > She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, > And puts a record on the gramophone. And Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving But Drowning” has described me at certain aprts of my life > [@](#): > > Oh, no no no, it was too cold always > (Still the dead one lay moaning) > I was much too far out all my life > And not waving but drowning. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/51 "2004-05-22T14:20:34Z")
Archergal, My favorite part of that: Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. [Digression] Which is why I ain’t going to see the damn movie[/digression] ---
**Author:** ![PorkChop47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e68b1a/32.png) [@PorkChop47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorkChop47)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/52 "2004-05-22T15:15:16Z")
> [@raz](#): > > My favorite poem is probably [The Lady of Shalott](http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/TENNLADY.HTML) by Tennyson. It’s got an amazing flow to it, its one of those poems that you just have to read out loud, even if you’re by yourself. I wholly agree with you. This is a wonderful poem, when I saw the title of this thread , the first poem that sprung to my mind was The Lady of Shalott. Tennyson tells us so much about this lady and her relationship with Lancelot. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/53 "2004-05-22T15:37:52Z")
Long poem: _The Illiad_. Short poem: [[http://www.mythicalrealm.com/creatures/kraken.html](http://www.mythicalrealm.com/creatures/kraken.html)]Tennyson’s _The Kraken_. I just ordered a copy of Harold Bloom’s new anthology _The Best Poems of the English Language_, and I can’t wait to read it. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/54 "2004-05-22T15:38:58Z")
That is, Tennyson’s [_The Kraken_](http://www.mythicalrealm.com/creatures/kraken.html). ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/55 "2004-05-22T16:17:08Z")
On an entirely modest note, my favourite poems are some of my own. 😛 But seriously, Poe’s Raven is a classic, and recently we’ve been doing a lot of Keats and War Literature for A levels so I have a lot of favourites from that pile. Also , even though Baz Luhrmann made a song out of it does [Wear Sunscreen count?](http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~nicholson/sunscreen.html) ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/56 "2004-05-22T19:33:49Z")
> [@CBCD](#): > > Tennyson has been so dissed by modern critics who regard him as a moron. What do they know? All I know is that “The Passing of Arthur” (from _Idylls of the King_) invariably causes me to weep copiously and pathetically… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/57 "2004-05-22T21:19:14Z")
From [Anyone lived in a pretty how town](http://http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1260.htmlSanne) by e.e.cummings: one day anyone died i guess (and no-one stooped to kiss his face) busy folk buried them side by side little by little and was by was all by all and deep by deep and more by more they dream their sleep no-one and anyone earth by april wish by spirit and if by yes. ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/58 "2004-05-22T21:50:37Z")
_The Spoon River Anthology_, by Edgar Lee Masters. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/59 "2004-05-22T23:33:21Z")
> [@CBCD](#): > > Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote another of my favorite poems, **Spring and Fall.** I named my daughter Margaret after the girl in the poem. That’s my favorite poem, it’s so poignant and empathetic. Like Margaret, I always used to cry in Autumn and when years changed; I felt sorry for the dying trees. I love that you named your daughter after her! **Spring and Fall to a Young Child** , by Gerald Manley Hopkins _Margaret, are you grieving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leaves, líke the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Ah! as the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; And yet you wíll weep and know why. Now no matter, child, the name: Sorrow’s springs are the same. Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed What heart heard of, ghost guessed: It ís the blight man was born for, It is Margaret you mourn for._ **Phenomenal Woman** by Maya Angelou _Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, It’s in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me…_ ([Full Text](http://www.commonplacebook.com/inspire/woman.shtm)) And do Sonnets count? If so… **Sonnet 116** by William Shakespeare \*Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken… - ([Full Text](http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/116.html)) ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/60 "2004-05-23T00:10:51Z")
Ted Hughes, _The Jaguar_ … a cage where the crowd stands, stares, memerized, As a child at a dream, at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying enraged Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes On a short fierce fuse. Not in boredom - The eye satisfied to be blind in fire, By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear - He spins from the bars, but there’s no cage to him More than to the visionary his cell… [Full text here](http://members.tripod.com/poetry_pearls/ePoets/Hughes.htm). Hughes had a quite extraordinary eye for nature poems. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401.md?page=4)