One single line of poetry....

[Clawdy]

that stays with you? Not necessarily your favourite poem but sometimes just one line....for me it's " What will survive of us is love " from the Philip Larkin poem.

I can only remember ones like:

Brown and furry, caterpillar in a hurry

And

The king asked the queen and the queen asked the dairymaid, "could we have some butter for the royal slice of bread?"

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

'Invictus' by W.E Henley

Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Dylan Thomas

Ooh And...

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Hopkins.

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be

Lay your sleeping head my love
Human on my faithless arm

More Auden - seems to be popular on here!

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light;
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

By WB Yeats

'What system can promise to stay in place,
What structure can promise to hold its shape,
What future can promise to keep its faith?

Everything changed. Nothing is safe.'

Simon Armitage, Out of the Blue ( about 9/11).

Those cruel girls we loved are over forty,
Their subtle daughters have stolen their beauty,
And with a blue stare of cool surprise,
They mock their anxious mothers, with their mothers' eyes.

Heard a carol mournful holy, chanted loudly chanted lowly ...

I know it's not fashionable any more but I love Tennyson and I love narrative verse - beautiful long poems with a tale to tell.

I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.

Felt in the blood and felt along the heart - Tintern Abbey.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams - Yeats
Anchor. Kite. - Simon Armitage

I wonder by troth what you and I did til we loved? - The Good- Morrow by John Donne. Did his poems for A'Level 20 odd years ago and this one stuck. Just an old romantic!!

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Death be not proud by John Donne.

Like *Penguins it's the line from Invictus by W E Henly for me:

'I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.'

The last line of Plath's 'Daddy' has also stayed with me:
'Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.' Such rage.

I often have a strange and penetrating dream; of a woman, whom I do not know

Mon reve familiar by Paul Verlaine. I've always loved it and remembered it since I did my A levels

Weep if you must,
parting is hell,
but life goes on,
so sing as well.

If I should go - by Joyce Grenfell.
This is the poem that I want read at my funeral...

ONE day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washèd it away:
Edmund Spenser

'Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.'

& Wendy cope :
Bloody Christmas here again
Let's us raise a loving cup,
Peace on earth, goodwill to men
And make them do the washing up .

Ledare picked my choice,this is my second favorite by an inch

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

God is in his heaven and all is right with the world

And Pam Ayres : sorry a whole poem
Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear.
And here’s the reason why.
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry.
And if we hear a knocking
And it’s creepy and it’s late,
I hand you the torch you see,
And you investigate.

Yes I’ll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It’s you that has to mend it.
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It’s you that has to whack him.

Yes, I’ll marry you,
You’re virile and you’re lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night!!!

It’s you who has to work the drill
And put up curtain track,
And when I’ve got PMT it’s you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
And so before you see the light,
I DO, I DO, I DO!!

In boots that outlasted them.
About WW1

My Dad did.
In the poem a child has missed out an 'e' (blubs)

I am a bunny rabbit, sitting in me hutch
I always sit up this end, don't care for that end much

Pam Ayres