Obviously nursery rhymes bring back memories of childhood, but what other poems have the same effect? One that does for me, is Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky. It carries me right back to my childhood bedroom and the journeys of the imagination taken there. Anyone else?

i know it`s not really answering your query Dave, but this minds me of some lines from Thompson` s `Ex ore infantium`:

Didst thou play in heaven with all
The angels who were not too tall
With stars for marbles? did the things
Play can you see me through their wings?

(the whole (charming) poem always makes me think some deep incarnational thoughts.)

by the way...where have you been?

I remember putting Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" to memory as a lad. The timeless appeal of
military derring-do!

I memorized poems by the dozens as a child. I had a severe fall once, and was hospitalized overnight, with nothing to do - no radio, no TV. Nothing! Somehow, I had access to 'The Walrus and the Carpenter', and I spent my bedridden hours learning the entire poem, just for fun. And I still spout the odd verse, literally 'out of nowhere.'

Perhaps the most-loved was/is 'Leisure' by Davies? Its verses still live in the forefront of my life. And 'Silver'. And 'The Highwayman.' My tastes were, and still are, very eclectic.

A few years back I tutored a summer course in poetry for young people, 5-15. And they LOVED it. They began writing themselves, really splendid stuff. It was a a very special 'holiday break' that I shall never forget.