I can only remember one poem from school - and not even sure if this was in the curriculum!

[CormoranStrike]

It may just have been a little ditty that amused the teacher.

Anyone else remember - or can follow - this one?

11 was a racehorse
22 was 12
1111 race
22112

That's more of a riddle than a poem?

Wonwon was a racehorse
Tootoo was one too
Wonwon won one race etc

My dad gave me a similar one:
YYUR
YYUB
ICUR
YY4ME!

I can read yours too!

Poor Johnny now is dead and gone
His eyes will see no more
For what he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4

Poor Johnny

Taught in Chemistry.

I am a sundial and I made a botch,
Of what ismdome far better by a watch
By Hilariie Belloc (I think).

Studied war poems at school, Dulcie et decorum, and ‘they called it Passchendale, I called it hell’ - only line I can remember.

The above poem was written in the same anthology, I think.

Death be not proud by John Donne has always stayed with me:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

I never knew until the other day that Mungo Jerry (the band) was named after a cat in a T S Eliot poem.

Ozymandius is one we had to learn. We were total geeks and rewrote it as (almost) a limmerick.

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said the king had a great feeding hand,
"Look on my works and despair!
Sorry they're in such disrepair."
Far away stretch the lone, level sands.

Not from school, but from "When we were very young"

What's the opposite of doughnut?
It's a cookie with a hole around it.

And McGonnogals
"As I was walking down the road,
I saw a coo.... a bullbigoad!"

(Bulls were always 'A bullbigoad' in our house growing up.)

I love poetry but for some reason the stuff they gave us in school didn't inspire me, now I realise that I just didn't appreciate it. (miind you maybe it was also the dissecting of it line by line over several lessons that slowly killed it.)

The only verse of poetry I remember from school is

"Why does he ferry my fireside
As a spider on a thread,
His fingers made of fuses
And his tongue of gingerbread? "

Well, I just looked it up and it's a brilliant poem, I really can't understand why I didn't love it.

Matilda told such dreadful lies, it made one gasp and stretch her eyes...
Also Hilaire Beloc.

We did some war poetry.

"Good morning! Good morning!" the general said
As he greeted his men on the way up the line
Now the men that he smiled at are most of 'em dead
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
"He's a cheery old card" grunted Harry to Jack
As they trudged up to Arras with rifle and pack
But he did for them both with his plan of attack.