Why does a certain poem come to mind, so easily and so…

Why does a certain poem come to mind, so easily and so often? Your answers

daffodils wordsworth — Daffodils in Dora’s Field at Rydal, Cumbria. The bulbs were originally planted by a distraught Lake District poet William Wordsworth and his family in honour of his daughter Dora following her death in 1847. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Why does a certain poem come to mind, so easily and so often?

Because of the memories attached to it.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya

• I’m not sure why certain poems come to mind but I am eternally grateful to my English teachers who insisted that we learn them by heart, as I have a rich treasure trove of poetry to draw from in my later life.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia

• The lines of favourite poems can emit verbal endorphins.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada

• Familiarity. I or my wife have only to say, “Yes” in a knowing tone and the other will reply, “I remember Adlestrop.”
Charlie Bamforth, Davis, California, US

• For heaven’s sake, don’t tell me what the poem is, or I won’t be able to get it out of my head!
Bruce Inksetter, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

• The poem that comes to my mind most readily (especially at this time of year) is Wordsworth’s I wandered lonely as a cloud (also known as Daffodils), probably because it was the first poem I was required to learn in elementary school!
Avril Taylor, Dundas, Ontario, Canada

• Because it rhymes with the times.
Edward P Wolfers, Austinmer, NSW, Australia

• The Lady with the Alligator Purse – an old jump-rope rhyme – was fixed in my memory at about two, probably a bathtub song sung by Mom. It re-emerged at 50.
RM Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US

• Because it reflects life as I perceive it.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

• I can never get Horace’s Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (“It is sweet and fitting to die for your country”) out of my head when I see war pictures. It is so dreadfully wrong.
Jenefer Warwick James, Paddington, NSW, Australia

You should ask Big Brother

Is there a difference between ‘Everything which is not compulsory is forbidden’ and ‘Everything which is not forbidden is compulsory’?

The question could be a good guide to how totalitarian is the country in which you live. The less of a difference there is, the more you should worry. I am getting increasingly nervous for much of the world.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia

• The first is the totalitarian principle of prohibition; the second is the natural principle of plenitude.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany

• Not sure, ask Big Brother.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia

• I suspect that very few people would care unless compulsed to answer.
Gillian Shenfield, Sydney, Australia

• It is neither compulsory nor forbidden to answer questions requiring mental gymnastics, but I think I sprained a synapse.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada