madbaker | The poetry meme

stolen from

fionnbharro, but I think that my response in one of his earlier posts prompted this - so I'm taking some responsibility for it.

Post the first poem you ever memorized. If it's over a dozen lines or so, place it behind a cut. Please omit nursery rhymes or other 'children's' poetry.
And it you never memorized a poem, shame on you! Go memorize one now.

I refuse to categorize Ogden Nash as "children's poetry", so:

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.

If you do disqualify Nash, then feh on you. Here's the alternate:

The first child of Miss Keats-Shelley
Came to light with its face in its belly
The second was born
With a hump and a horn
And the third was as shapeless as jelly.
-Edward Gorey (as if you're at all surprised by this...)