Early memories of verse: they stay with us, don’t they? Like these words of Sidney Lanier I learned in grammar school. Just a phrase or a line may lay the groundwork for a feeling for words and meter and verbal expression of any sort–for a lifetime. What’s a phrase or a line that has meant something to you over the years?
At The Peacock's Perch 
I meant to do my work today
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree.
These first lines of Richard Le Gallienne’s poem have stuck with me all these years. I once knew the entire poem.
Great lines, Mike. Richard LeGalliene: Just looked him up. He was prolific.
This mornning I re-read this post. I decided to add another. It’s a children’s poem by A.A. Milne:
“When Ann and I go out a walk,
We hold each other’s hands and talk
Of all the things we mean to do
When Ann and I are forty-two.
And when we’ve thought about a thing,
Like bowling hoops, or bicycling,
Or falling down on Ann’s balloon,
We do it in the afternoon.
As a child I read, or was read to, Milne’s children’s verse, as well as R.L. Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses.
I did not only read these as a child, but as I grew. I just loved the beauty of the verse, and how the poets understood children so well.