Poetry of Cheese Quotes

Est. 1998


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The Poetry of Cheese

Welcome to my page of quotes from cheese poetry, a counter to G. K. Chesterton’s "Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." ’Tis not so! SEE ALSO: DAIRY, CHEESE, & EGGS, POETRY, SANDWICHES, WINE –Terri

My forthcoming work in five volumes, "The Neglect of Cheese in European Literature," is a work of such unprecedented and laborious detail that it is doubtful if I shall live to finish it. I cannot yet wholly explain the neglect to which I refer. Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. Virgil, if I remember right, refers to it several times, but with too much Roman restraint. He does not let himself go on cheese. Except Virgil and the anonymous rhymer of "If all the trees were bread and cheese," I can recall no verse about cheese. Yet it has every quality which we require in exalted poetry. It is a short, strong word, and it rhymes to "breeze" and "seas." Cheese has also variety, the very soul of song. ~G. K. Chesterton [a little altered –tg]

Shall I compare thee to a blue veined cheese
thou art more moldy and more curdly blue
~Barry Hopkins (1948–2018), "Sonnet 18⅔"

Dear Lady, I beg you
To cook as you please,
But don't overlook the
Importance of cheese!
~Ruth McCrea, The ABC of Cheese Cookery, 1961

Don't take a chance on chili
With cheap, chunky cheese,
I tell you true,
Once you chew,
You'll get a champion wheeze...
~David L. Harrison, "Choosy"

Cheese is one food that I really adore,
Every day, I seem to eat more and more.
Why, there is Red Leicester, Gouda, Gruyere and Brie,
And mild Gorgonzola on rye is for me.
Mozzarella is simply nice on its own,
While Edam on toast, I can surely condone...
~Janna Tiearney, "Cheese Please"

No matter what conditions
Dyspeptic come to feaze,
The best of all physicians
Is apple-pie and cheese!
~Eugene Field, "Apple-Pie and Cheese"

The Moon is like a big round cheese
That shines above the garden trees,
And like a cheese grows less each night,
As though some one had had a bite.
~Oliver Herford, "The Moon," The Kitten's Garden of Verses, 1911

What are flowers without the bees,
What of grasses without the breeze?
Nothing the wind if not for the trees,
Nada la quesadilla sin el cheese.
~Terri Guillemets, "O! queso what?," 2017

Cheese, lively subject of a poet's dream,
My thoughts go skipping through the tender theme.
Venerable topic, old as the hills, I sing,
Yet ever new, and green, like love, and spring.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The auld wife sat at her ivied door,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
A thing she had frequently done before;
And her spectacles lay on her apron'd knees...
~Charles Stuart Calverley, "Ballad," c. 1881

De gustibus, 't is stated,
Non disputandum est.
Which meaneth, when translated,
That all is for the best.
So let the foolish choose 'em
The vapid sweets of sin,
I will not disabuse 'em
Of the heresy they 're in;
But I, when I undress me
Each night, upon my knees
Will ask the Lord to bless me
With apple-pie and cheese!
~Eugene Field, "Apple-Pie and Cheese"

Poets with whom I learned my trade,
Companions of the Cheshire Cheese,
Here's an old story I've remade,
Imagining 'twould better please
Your ears than stories now in fashion...
~William Butler Yeats, "The Grey Rock," 1913 [not actual cheese but the name of a London pub where literary dudes hung out —tg]

Fry once the beans then fry again
Mix in a pinch of red cayenne
Top with queso that has been shred
Wrap all inside the steamrolled bread
~Terri Guillemets, "Bean & cheese burrito," 2016 [Yes, I know that's not how refried beans are made. It's just a little humorful poetic license. —tg]

The ancient poets ne'er did dream
That Canada was land of cream,
They ne'er imagined it could flow
In this cold land of ice and snow,
Where everything did solid freeze,
They ne'er hoped or looked for cheese...
~James McIntyre, "Oxford Cheese Ode," Poems, 1884

When Father Ranney left the States,
In Canada to try the fates,
He settled down in Dereham,
Then no dairyman lived near him;
He was the first there to squeeze
His cows' milk into good cheese...
~James McIntyre, "Father Ranney, The Cheese Pioneer," Poems, 1884

Then let the farmers justly prize
The cows for land they fertilize,
And let us all with songs and glees
Invoke success into the cheese.
~James McIntyre, "Lines Read at a Dairyman's Supper," Poems, 1884

And since they justly treat the soil,
Are well rewarded for their toil,
The land enriched by goodly cows
Yields plenty now to fill their mows,
Both wheat and barley, oats and peas,
But still their greatest boast is cheese.
~James McIntyre, "Oxford Cheese Ode," Poems, 1884

Our muse it doth refuse to sing
Of cheese made early in the spring,
When cows give milk from spring fodder
You cannot make a good cheddar.
The quality is often vile
Of cheese that is made in April,
Therefore we think for that reason
You should make later in the season.
Cheese making now you should delay
Until about the first of May.
Then cows do feed on grassy field
And rich milk they abundant yield...
~James McIntyre, "Dairy Ode," Poems, 1884

Now we close this glorious theme,
This song of curds and rich cream...
~James McIntyre, "Father Ranney, The Cheese Pioneer," Poems, 1884

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published 2013 Nov 27
revised 2020 Feb 17
last saved 2023 Aug 15
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