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.

Two in particular - one from a especially sad funeral

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.”
? A.A. Milne, Now We Are Six

And being fortunate enough to have the most amazing sister, this has always struck a chord

“For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.”

Goblin Market
By Christina Rossetti

Ooh got a non sad one!!! This reminds me of my uncle's wedding when I was 6. He got married on my birthday and this was on the present he gave me

Isn't it funny how bears like honey,
Buzz, buzz, buzz, I wonder why he does.

Probably the Charge of the Light Brigade:
Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die

Yes madcatters and I've seen it performed beautifully (teenage boys, and a very elderly veteran in the audience said the staging with mustard green lighting and lots of dry ice was frighteningly accurate).

But it sounds like teenage sex out of the context of the whole poem.

The more memorable part of it for me is later:

"If you could hear with every jolt the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs..."

Shudder.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me. Otherwise kill me.

Same poem as thumbcat but it's the last line for me that sticks in my head.

Great evening reading this!

Oh, MadeMan, me too. That was what I came to post.

The boy stood on the burning deck

Lovely.

Here's the rest, for anyone who's interested:

Love's the boy stood on the burning deck
trying to recite `The boy stood on
the burning deck.' Love's the son
stood stammering elocution
while the poor ship in flames went down.

Love's the obstinate boy, the ship,
even the swimming sailors, who
would like a schoolroom platform, too,
or an excuse to stay
on deck. And love's the burning boy.

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where de boidies is

Don't ask me why I should remember this so well but I always think of it when spring finally arrives!

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear;
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair!
So Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy was he?

This one I remember because my mother used to say it to me when I was very young. You have to pronounce 'was he' as 'wuzzy', which I thought was hilarious when I first knew it. I find it very difficult to remember anything off by heart but stuff that went in when I was tiny does seem to have stuck, regardless of merit!

Il pleure dans mon coeur comme il pleut sur la ville (Verlaine)

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! (Shelley)

You cannot know, and should not bother; tide and market come and go and so shall your mother. (Pepper Clark)

Aww Gaspode. Spring is sprung reminds me so much of my Dad. Sniff.

Tread softly for you tread on my dreams

WB Yeats

No star is ever lost we once have seen, We may always be what we might have been.

Adelaide Anne Procter.

Me too, Director! I suspect I'm luckier than you. for you if I'm right. My dad's still around and spouting stuff like this at the drop of a hat. Long may that continue.

"Pennies emanate from her"

CAT'S MEAT
O, all you cats in all the street; Look out, it is the hour of meat :

The little barrow is crawling along, And the meat-boy growling his fleshy song.

Hurry, Ginger! Hurry, White! Don't delay to court or fight.

Wandering Tabby, vagrant Black, Yamble from adventure back !

Slip across the shining street, Meat! Meat! Meat! Meat !

Lift your tail and dip your feet; Find your penny " Meat! Meat !

Where's your mistress? Learn to purr: Pennies emanate from her.

Be to her, for she is Fate, Perfectly affectionate.

(You, domestic Pinkie-Nose, Keep inside and warm your toes.)

Flurry, flurry in the street " Meat! Meat! Meat! Meat !

Harold Monro

Not strictly a poem but I had the sheer pleasure of playing Viola and uttering these wonderful lines-

Make me a willow cabin at your gate
And call upon my soul within the house
Write loyal cantons of comtemned love
And sing them loud, e'en in the dead of night
Hallow your name to the reverberate hills
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out "Olivia". O you shall not rest
Between the elements of air and earth
But you should pity me

"Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly;"

There will come soft rains by Sara Teasdale.

When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Thanks Gaspode. You're right. I also have him to thank for my secret love of Pam Ayres

Sensual stuff sticks with me - not necessarily the greatest or my favourite poems but I find these rolling around my mouth a lot.

As bread and beanflowers/The touch of their lips/And their white teeth sweeter than cucumbers. (Laurie Lee)

Dopo la pioggia, la terra/e una frutta appena sbucciato [After the rain, the earth/is a freshly-peeled fruit] (Giorgio Caproni). I wish I'd ever learned any other lines of poetry in other languages.

I love Sonnet 116

"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
They called me the hyacinth girl."
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Yours arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

Oed' und leer das Meer."

Wah - love this so much. Carry it around in my head.

Two favourites from childhood that are upbeat:

Lock yourself in a cupboard, dear
Run away to sea.
Do whatever you can, my flower
But don't ask me!
Please Mrs butler, Allan ahlberg

When I was 9/10 yrs old we had a supply teacher who would appear every so often and every time we would beg her to read the poem Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen, I don't suppose we even realised it was a poem. I still think of it now everything I cut a slice of cake.

...and I'm squealing and I'm smacking my lips and I'm stuffing myself with it...
...oh no they're bound to notice aren't they a whole chocolate cake doesn't just disappear....

I agree with other posters, however, it wasn't until I came across war poetry that my interest was properly sparked. The imagery still gets to me when I read them now.

Song of Solomon. Love the King James bible. This is lush.

"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.

10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

King James Version (KJV)
by Public Domain

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Lord Byron She walks in beauty

This poem is so lovely

I am not yet born, console me
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me
With strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me

"Prayer before birth" - Louis MacNeice

Chills me to the bone