[Andrew Frisardi]

"50 Greatest Quotes About Poetry from Poets." (The one in the title line is from G. K. Chesterton.)

[John Whitworth]

I wrote a poem on this very subject, which was set as a Spectator Competition a few years ago. Mine did not win.

[Max Goodman]

William Cole wrote "What a Friend We Have in Cheeses!"

Looking for a copy online, I found that it is frequently quoted, usually on food-related sites. The Chesterton quote may actually have been the epigraph, as, I was surprised to discover, I suggested two years ago.

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=12209

[John Beaton]

This poem, famed for its awfulness, is a counterexample. In MacIntyre's bio (click on his name in the linked page) it says a cheese-themed poetry contest takes place annually in his honour.

John

[Brian Allgar]

O poets! Eloquent on birds and bees,
On love and death, on daffodils and trees,
Why shun you so the noble theme of cheese?

Mysteriously silent, poets lost a
Rewarding subject; Byron might have tossed a
Stanza or two in praise of Double Gloucester.

No Scottish Cheddar (mousetrap with a kilt on)
From Robert Burns? No elegiac Stilton
(The favourite cheese of Lycidas) from Milton?

No ode to Wensleydale or to Caerphilly,
No cheesy hymns, delectable or smelly,
From Tennyson or Browning, Keats or Shelley?

I speak, of course, of proper English curd’s worth,
And not that French muck, hardly what a turd’s worth
(Unless from sheep - in which case, where is Wordsworth?)


(Damn, I was supposed to be getting up and going shopping ...)

[David Rosenthal]

O Cheese

[Mark Blaeuer]

I also went out looking for "O Cheese" (which I learned has been set to music), and found this: http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot...n-cheeses.html

[Roger Slater]

There's the famous Ogden Nash poem, of course:

Bleu
Will do
But cheddar
Is better.

[Carol Taylor]

The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven:

http://holyjoe.org/poetry/carryl3.htm

[Gail White]

Years ago at the Caveau des Oubliettes in Paris I heard a song called "La Fromage - Poesie!" So the French know all about it.