Can you recite a whole poem?

I'm grateful for the Shakespeare I had to learn at school.

Sit Jessica............... (who the heck was Jessica? Can remember the poem, not the story!)

Merchant of Venice!

Yes. That's it. "Full fathom five, thy father lies, those are (something) that were his eyes, of his bones are coral made......." That's another bit from it isn't it?

Definitely liked the poetry more than the plays!

There once was a rabbit
Developed the habit
Of twitching the end of his nose.
His sisters & brothers
An all of the others
Said 'look at the way that it goes'.
Now all the world over
Where rabbits eat clover
And scrabble and scratch with their toes
There isn't a rabbit
Who hasn't the habit
Of twitching the end of its nose.

(One of the many rhymes & poems we taught the kids at the infant school where I worked)

J04, I'm at a loss to understand why you think I should pass judgement on your post - wonderful as it is!

'Full fathom five.....' - the Tempest.

There was an old lady who always was tired; she lived in a house where help was not hired. Her last words on earth were, dear friends I am going, where washing ain't done, nor sweeping nor sewing. But everything there will fit in with my wishes, for where they don't eat there's no washing of dishes. Don't mourn for me now, don't mourn for me never..I'm going to do nothing, forever and ever. [Darn it, I had to look it up cause I forgot bits of it]. I used to like learning things at school but can't comprehend how people actually learn whole Shakesperean plays [.

Anagram

Annobel, yes, quite likely. We did that one too.

I am the daughter of earth and water and the nursling of the sky,
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores I change but I cannot die,
For after the rain with never a stain the pavilion of heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, and out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again....[phew, remembered that one; what am I?]

Sung by ariel to the son!
The best line in that play
'oh brave new world that has such creatures in it"
Obviously written by a man!

I've just half watched a programme about The Tempest on BBC4; may watch it again when it's repeated later tonight as I've never understood it.

It's so lovely to have lots of poems in your head. It does mean that they are there when you need them and you don't have to go and find a book. I used to stand on the back deck of my narrowboat reciting out loud as I steered,'On either side the river lie long fields of barley and of rye that clothe the wold and meet the sky and through the fields the road runs by to many towered Camelot........ and on and on through most of The Lady of Shallot. I find it very comforting to be able to reel off yards of remembered poems and bits of the Bible.

Yes! I know 'You're' written by Silvia Plath off by heart and a few poems written by Dorothy Parker. I can also recite a poem by Kathleen Raine.

Oh dear. I've just Oxfamed all of DD's old Shakespeare books from her schooldays. Perhaps I should have re-read them.

Then again....................

I'm rubbish at remembering poetry.
My memory is useless.

There once was a lady from Rhyde
Who ate a green apple and died
The apple fermented inside the dimented
And grew Cider inside 'er inside!

Indeed

Oh if we are going to do limericks here's mine:

There was a farm in Huddersfield
That had a cow that wouldnt yield,
The reason whu she wouldnt yield
She didnt like her udders feeled.

time for a new thread methinks..

I wonder why my plants don"t grow
I water them and rake them so
And then I pull them up to see
If they have made any roots for me
Oh why are they so slow?

That is the only poem I can remember.

I can remember all the hymns we sang in Assembly each morning, hardly need a hymn book these days.
But just don't ask me what I did yesterday!! now let me think............hm

I love singing the old hymns but when I visited a church recently it was all modern stuff! My dad used to recite poetry and Shakespeare and gave me all sorts of poetry books which I adored - War poets, Love poets, Humorous verse and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verse bits of which I now recite to my GC such as 'I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me....' I used to recite The Traveller too by ?Walter de la Mare. Learning poetry at school was part of English lessons and I enjoyed it probably because I had good teachers who made it interesting. That is the rub I think.

GreatNan knows 100s of them by heart!!! Me - no I can't.

Loved Walter de la mare, and hilair Belloc

Palgraves golden treasury
I think I've still got a copy. (somewhere?)