What poem do you know by heart? #nationalpoetryday

So it seems, listening to Radio 4 Today this morning, that our grandparents were not being tortured by sadistic schoolteachers when forced to learn poetry by heart but were given a valuable gift that stays with them even when other faculties may have gone. 

Alas, I was of the generation where although we read poetry and often quite difficult poets, we weren't forced to recite the whole of Upon Westminster Bridge to a class of our bored peers, more's the pity. These days, it appears, its even worse. Children use poetry as a comprehension exercise without ever really spending time just reading it out aloud. 

However, I did learn one poem off by heart which I can recite to my small ones...The Owl and The Pussycat. It's the only one though. 

Which poems could you confidently recite off by heart? Even just to yourself in a quiet moment? Or would like to learn?

Today is National Poetry Day.

As ever, we remind ourselves of Harringay's very own poem and of our very own poet Michael Donaghy whose wife Maddy has recently published a memoir of him called The Great Below - a journey into loss

Happy Poetry Day. Maybe this is the time I start learning Upon Westminster Bridge...

Bonus track - Listen to Alan Bennett on Philip Larkin