My grandmother used to say funny little things like the poem below. There's another one, but this one is the most fun to say.

"Starkle, Starkle, little twink
Who the heck you are I think.
I'm not under the affluence of incohol
Like some thinkle peep I are.
I've had tee many martooni's and a scottle of botch,
But I'm not worried
I have all sober to Sunday up!"

Twas brillig and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe
all mimsy were the borogoves
and the mome wrath outgrabe

etc...

I learned The Jabberwocky for an english class in sixth grade, and I still remember the whole thing 35 years later. I even wrote a paper on the poem when I was in college because I had limited time to get the paper done, and didn't feel like going to the library to look up a poem.

If tears could build a stairway

If tears could build a stairway
And memories were a lane
We would walk right up to Heaven
And bring you back again

No farewell words were spoken
No time to say goodbye
You were gone before we knew it
And only God knows why

Our hearts still ache in sadness
And secret tears still flow
What it meant to lose you
No on will ever know

But know we know you want us
To mourn for you no more
To remember all the happy times
Life still has much in store

Since you’ll never be forgotten
We pledge to you today
A hallowed place within our hearts
Is where you’ll always stay

I remember this because it reminds me of the people that are gone in life, plus it is one of the bloody saddest things I have ever read

Once upon a midnight dreary,
While I pondered weak and weary,
Over a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...
While I nodded, nearly napping,
Suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping at my chamber door.
"T'is some visitor" I muttered,
"tapping at my chamber door. Only this and nothing more."

This, quite obviously, is "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Probably everyone remembers this poem, or at least a part of it. I've always liked Edgar Allan Poe, and this was the first poem I ever read by him. It was in middle school, and we had to recite it in small pieces in groups. I had the first 4 stanzas. I only remember the first stanza, now, though. I wish I still remembered all of what I knew... Don't know why... heh.

oh please no...I remember all my poems from 2nd grade....
Here's the first one. (I promise I'm not checking)


The Duck
by Ogden Nash

Behold the duck
It does not cluck
A cluck it lacks
It quacks
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.

Coda

There's little in taking or giving,
There's little in water or wine;
This living, this living, this living
Was never a project of mine.
Oh, hard is the struggle, and sparse is
The gain of the one at the top,
For art is a form of catharsis,
And love is a permanent flop,
And work is the province of cattle,
And rest's for a clam in a shell,
So I'm thinking of throwing the battle-
Would you kindly direct me to hell?

Dorothy Parker

When I first got The Portable Dorothy Parker I opened to a random page and what do you know Coda. Seeing as when I'm not running rantic I'm overwhelmingly depressed, which is the majority of the time I could really relate to this.

three little soldierz standin in a row...
two stood strait and one stood so...
along came the captain... and what do you think???
they all stood strait... az-quick-az-a-wink!!!...

... :D... me uzd tu tel ths pome wid 'aktionz'... n me uzd tu 'wink' at the last fraze... n me wuz jus 2 yearz or so at tht time... me tol ths pome(or made tu...) so manyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy timez tht me stil reimemberz it... he he he... :P... peace!!!

I laugh every time I think of this...
These are from "The Man With Two Brains", a Steve Martin movie from 1982. If you haven't seen that movie, I highly recommend it!

Steve Martin's character (Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr) says that these are the poems of "John Lillison, England's Greatest One-Armed Poet"
------------------------------ --------
"Pointy Birds"

O pointy birds, o pointy pointy,
Anoint my head, anointy-nointy

------------------------------ ---------------
"In Dillman's Grove"

In Dillman's Grove, our love did die,
And now in ground shall ever lie.
None could e'er replace her visage,
Until your face brought thoughts of kissage.

------------------------------ --------------
Yes yes, I'm sure these were just made up by Steve Martin ... but they make me laugh...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Man_with_Two_Brains
http://www.goer.org/HTML/examples/htmlhorror1.txt

Yeah, I've learned a bunch of 'em by heart:

Gunga Din Kipling
Casey at the Bat Thayer
Casey's Revenge Rice (short14 verse version)
The Cremation of Sam McGee Sevice
Empties Coming Back Ponciano

Ogden Nash

The Wendigo,
The Wendigo!
I saw it just a friend ago!
Last night it lurked in Canada;
Tonight, on your veranada!

I "perform" them for my father (88 this summer) who has Alzheimer's and resides in a nursing home. He gets this pained expression on his face for Casey at the Bat or The Cremation of Sam McGee and then he chortles so much he comes to tears. I guess I'm a bit of a ham.

"the jabberwocky" - we had to learn it in year 6 and "all is well" - coz i said it for my grandad's funeral