And there was also a time when the whole class had to recite poems. I recited this:
Excerpts from The Song of Beren and Luthien (JRR Tolkien). The last few stanzas in fact.
Yes, I am a huge Tolkien fan! That's how I got my username:).
Found in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, in the chapter "A Knife In The Dark" in Book 1.

He sought her ever, wandering far,
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon
As on a hill-top high and far,
She danced, and at her feet was strewn,
A mist of silver quivering.

When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the Elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again,
He longed by her to dance and sing,
Upon the grass untroubling.

Again she fled, but swift he came,
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening;
One moment stood she, and then a spell
His voice laid on her; Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinuviel
That in his arms lay glistening.

As Beren looked into her eyes,
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinuviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise;
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore,
O'er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of iron and darkling door,
and woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.