El Dorado is the first poem I ever memorized. When I was dating my wife, we went for a walk and I recited every poem I could remember once. We were gone over two hours. I reckon memorizing poems is a stupid pasttime, but no worse than video games or watching football.

I love that particular poem, though, and many times when I was living alone would recite it over and over to myself, like a hymn or a chant. I guess I don't even think it's all 'that' great of a poem - it's just that it's so lyrical - like Dylan Thomas stuff. These guys are addictive. If they had written television jingles, we'd all be zombies.

k