I had to memorize that poem in every grade, since we lived in Joyce Kilmer’s hometown.
Or course, we sniggered every time we said “breast” or “bosom”, and thought it especially weird that “Joyce: was a MAN...and a WW1 Vet, at that!
Ha! I’ll bet there’s not a lot of people who know Kilmer was a man.
We had to memorize that in grammar school but its been so long ago I can’t remember the grade.
It did make an impression on me and even then I thought it was great.