Can anyone recommend to me some poem or poems on the subject of cheese, that might be suitable for recitation at a dinner [towards the end of next week] celebrating that comestible?
Or some quotes that might be worked into an after-dinner speech on that occasion?
Ian
The early bird catches the worm, but it's the second mouse gets the cheese. Attributed to Willie Nelson. I'm very fond of that quote, but not at all sure it will be appropriate for your purpose - however, it's the only quote or poem on the subject that springs to mind. Perhaps my brain will work better when I've eaten some cheese. Watch this space (the one between my ears, that is)
If all the world was apple-pie,
And all the sea was ink,
And all the trees were bread and cheese,
What should we have to drink
It's enough to make an old man
Scratch his head and think.
If all the world were paper,
And all the sea were ink,
If all the trees were bread and cheese,
What should we have to drink?
Ian, this is just an old anonymous nursery rhyme. Read G K Chesteron on the lack of cheese in literature!
Marian, thank you for that great "second mouse" quote.
I also have a quote from Hilaire Belloc (which I had long misremembered as being by GK Chesterton), which lends itself quite well to Churchillian-style declamation: "If antiquity ... be the ... test ... of nobility, then ... cheese ... is a very noble thing!"
And one from Clifton Fadiman (whoever he was/is): "A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality.”
And Charles de Gaulle is supposed to have said about France “Any country that makes 365 types of cheese is ungovernable.”
Stephen, thank you for the GK Chesterton reference (I have found Chapter 9 (titled "Cheese"), in his "Alarms and Discursions", which I assume is the one) and thank you for the old nursery rhyme.
Apart from that one, the only recitation-worthy poem I have that mentions cheese is the anonymous “Sonnet Found in a Deserted Madhouse”:
Oh that my soul a marrow-bone might seize!
For the old egg of my desire is broken,
Spilled is the pearly white and spilled the yolk, and
As the mild melancholy contents grease
My path the shorn lamb baas like bumblebees.
Time's trashy purse is as a taken token
Or like a thrilling recitation, spoken
By mournful mouths full of mirth and cheese.
And yet, why should I clasp the earthful urn?
Or find the frittered fig that felt the fast?
Or choose to chase the cheese around the churn?
Or swallow any pill from out the past?
Ah, no Love, not while your hot kisses burn
Like a potato riding on the blast.
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2009 08:23AM by IanAKB.
"Cheesy come, cheesy go", said the family grocer.
"Forty cheeses in a row - come a little closer.
Softly murmurs in the night, some belated stroller
Get a move on, move up mite - Hark! the Gorganzola"
My father told me this many years ago!
Liederkranz, liederkranz,
Sure does stink
Drop it in some acid
Pour it down the sink
Limburger, limburger,
Sure does reek
Put it in a cardboard box
Send to Mozambique
I just made that up, Ian. My muse has been haunting me ever since you posted this. Maybe some kids will recite it while jumping rope and I can finally get some peace. (lol)
Joe
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2009 07:37PM by hpesoj.
Thank you Jan, for that enigmatic verse. Your father must have had a quirky sense of humour!
Thank you, Joe, for your brave contributions. I didn't get to use them, but you have inspired me to think that the different kinds of cheese deserve to be honoured, each by a short poem. I will let that idea incubate, or should I say 'mature', and see what I can do when time permits.
Ian
Hi! I just now stumbled upon this site, and am pleased to be here.
What a friend we have in cheeses,
For no food more subtly pleases,
Nor plays so vast a gastronomic par;
Cheese imported - not domestic -
For we all get indigestic
From the pasteurizer's Kraft and sodden art.
No poem we shall ever see is
Quite so lovely as a Brie is,
For the queen of cheese is what the call the Brie;
If you pay sufficient money
You will get one nice and runny,
And you'll understand what foods these morsels be!
There's a good deal more. Until I figure out how to use this forum, I'll just direct you to [wordcraft.infopop.cc]
Stephen, thank you for the GK Chesterton reference (I have found Chapter 9 (titled "Cheese"), in his "Alarms and Discursions", which I assume is the one) and thank you for the old nursery rhyme.
Apart from that one, the only recitation-worthy poem I have that mentions cheese is the anonymous “Sonnet Found in a Deserted Madhouse”:
Oh that my soul a marrow-bone might seize! For the old egg of my desire is broken, Spilled is the pearly white and spilled the yolk, and As the mild melancholy contents grease My path the shorn lamb baas like bumblebees. Time's trashy purse is as a taken token Or like a thrilling recitation, spoken By mournful mouths full of mirth and cheese. And yet, why should I clasp the earthful urn? Or find the frittered fig that felt the fast? Or choose to chase the cheese around the churn? Or swallow any pill from out the past? Ah, no Love, not while your hot kisses burn Like a potato riding on the blast.
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Kulaworaa
Scram! Begone!! Avaunt!!!
This is a poetry discussion site. Not somewhere to flog a soap product. And I object to you reposting my post as your own.
Poems about cheese? It is so fresh to me!
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