# What poetry can you recite by heart? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875 "2004-07-26T01:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875/61 "2004-07-27T04:58:24Z")
Oops, dang…didn’t know that there was a second page. Uh… There was an old woman who lived in a shoe And boy, did it stink in there! Hey, it was one of my favorite cartoons growing up, sue me! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875/62 "2004-07-27T07:09:22Z")
So many that have already been mentioned–such classics as Kipling’s “If,” Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and Service’s “Sam McGee.” But also ones like Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Prayer to Persephone,” and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Little Cares.” I can also rattle off such things as a number of Dorothy Parker’s poems and Max Ehrmann’s “Desiderata” if asked. And National Lampoon’s “Detiorata,” for that matter. Not including songs, of course–if we included those, I’d have a number of traditional Maritime/Canadian/American/Irish/Australian/English/Scottish songs that I could run off on demand. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875/63 "2004-07-27T11:26:06Z")
> [@Katisha](#): > > This is also how I can remember Donne’s “The Flea” and “Death be not proud,” … Oh yeah, John Donne’s death poem! I memorized when a friend died because it is so comforting. From the top of my head (so I could be wrong) Death be not proud, though some have called thee, mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. For those, whom thou thinkst thy dost overthrow, Die not, poor Death, nor cans’t thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, much pleasure flows, so from thee much more must flow; and soonest our best men with thee do go Rest of their bones, and souls delevery. pompadom…oh yeah Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppies, or charmes, can make us sleep as well, And better then thy stroke; so why swell’st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. Full lyrics in Ye Olde English Spellinge [here](http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/jdonne/bl-jdonne-death.htm). ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875/64 "2004-07-27T13:36:32Z")
Every poem I have memorized is in German. I know a couple of classics and some lowbrow stuff, i.e. Here’s one that is actually a toast… A WWII German soldiers’ toast to be exact. I recite it here for historical purposes. In des alten Dorfes Teiche fand man jungst 'ne Wasserleiche, und im mitten des gefechts fand man sie den weiblichen geschlechts… Zwischen ihren fetten Bruesten taten schon die Froesche nisten und aus ihrem Lustkanal wendet sich ein fettes Aal Ihr Arsch war schon bemosst- Prost! I have come up with a translation approximation with license (in appropo soldier crudeness.) In the old town ditch, he came upon a dead bloated bitch and in the heat of battle he discovered her female sex… Between her fat breasts the frogs had begun to nest and from her Love Canal slithered a fat eel. Her ass was well mossed. Toast! War is a bitch! ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875/65 "2004-07-27T14:43:51Z")
> [@PastAllReason](#): > > There’s also some snippets of Yeats, “I shall arise now and go to Innisfree”, and the much mentioned Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, and to show that I’m not totally obsessed with the subject of mortality (although reviewing this list is a little disconcerting) I know chunks of “Jabberwocky” and “The highwayman came riding, riding, riding; the highwayman came riding up to the old inn door.” OOOOO I know that one… Ghosties are SO important at 8 years old. It was in the “Children’s Treasury” book set. The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding- Riding-riding- The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door. Dang. [Looking it up, the full poem is very long.](http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/poetry/highwayman_noyes.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875/66 "2004-07-27T16:25:55Z")
> [@DeVena](#): > > The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, > The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, > The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor, > \ > Dang. [Looking it up, the full poem is very long.](http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/poetry/highwayman_noyes.htm) [Loreena McKennit](http://www.quinlanroad.com/tbos.html) has put that poem to music in her song: the Highwayman. Quite well done, imo. I thought _she_ had written it ! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-poetry-can-you-recite-by-heart/256875.md?page=3)