Many years ago my older son was a high school student taking AP English Lit where he was assigned the task of memorizing at least eighteen lines of poetry and having it ready to recite before the class. He asked me to recommend a poem. Instead, I wrote one in his voice, expressing a view of this homework. 

               Made to Order

To sharpen her young scholars’ minds,

Our teacher fixed on eighteen lines,

To memorize and then recite,

Before the class. And then we might,     

Provide a little exegesis,

If the extra effort please us,

Adding, then, a brief background

About the poem that we found.

But eighteen lines — why set this limit?

I could not see the reason in it.

A shorter poem I would choose,

But she preferred a windier muse.

I’d choose a sonnet by the finest poet,

But it’s four lines short. Wouldn’t you know it!

Thus Shakespeare, Milton, Pope and Browning,

Would only leave our teacher frowning.

And so, to keep her satisfied,

These eighteen lines I here provide!

February, 1998