# Who wrote this poem? Help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519 "2013-08-17T23:43:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/1 "2013-08-17T23:43:40Z")
In high school I hated English and Literature, but there was one British poem we studied that caught me. It was written over 300 years ago, but it resonated with me because it sounded so…modernish. It was about a man who should have been grateful his child was born, but in the end he was another mouth to feed. Was it from Samuel Pepys? ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/2 "2013-08-17T23:57:32Z")
> [@smokey78](#): > > In high school I hated English and Literature, but there was one British poem we studied that caught me. It was written over 300 years ago, but it resonated with me because it sounded so…modernish. It was about a man who should have been grateful his child was born, but in the end he was another mouth to feed. > > Was it from Samuel Pepys? [London](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172929) by William Blake? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/3 "2013-08-18T04:35:32Z")
Samuel Pepys is not known as a poet. If **Boulter’s Canary** hasn’t already nailed it (seems like a bit of a stretch to me, but maybe), can you give us anything more to go on? Any actual lines or phrases, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/4 "2013-08-18T21:11:55Z")
It was five to six lines, the clincher line is happens in the final line with the confession Definitely British from 18th or 17th century ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/5 "2013-08-18T23:01:06Z")
**smokey78** , do you remember if it was by a well-known writer/poet? ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/6 "2013-08-19T00:16:20Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Samuel Pepys is not known as a poet. > > If **Boulter’s Canary** hasn’t already nailed it (seems like a bit of a stretch to me, but maybe), can you give us anything more to go on? Any actual lines or phrases, maybe? Me too, to be honest - but it was the only poem I could find of the period Smokey said that ends with a curse on a birth. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/7 "2013-08-19T11:35:26Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Samuel Pepys is not known as a poet. Perhaps just as crucially, he isn’t known as a father either - he was childless. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/8 "2013-08-19T12:03:23Z")
[Perhaps you got the nationality and era wrong?](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171340) ---
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-poem-help/666519/9 "2013-08-19T21:29:31Z")
Same theme but definitely British and centuries ago. Guess I’ll look through English Literature/Poetry textbooks at the library. I do know it was five or six lines, short.