English for me at school as well - with lots of learning poetry by heart. Sixth form (17 and 18 year olds for US readers) reading included Chaucer (the Nun's Priest's Tale) in parallel translation by Neville Coghill), Yeats, inevitably Shakespeare and that pretentious putz, Gerard Manley Hopkins, with his "sprung rhythm".

Being 17 meant, of course, that we all read Chaucer's "Miller's Tale" and the "Reeve's Tale" as well, but not in class...

"And, privily, he caught her by the quim" - irresistible!