poem with the line "Why do I fall in love with every girl I've ever met"

November 20, 2017 9:11 PM

Just that--I think it's part of the classic canon, like Bukowski or TS Eliot or something. Might've even been quoted in a television show like Mad Men. Would love to read the full thing again.
posted by ABlanca to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

That you're connecting it with Mad Men makes me think maybe Frank O'Hara for some reason? This doesn't read Eliot-like to me at all for sure.
posted by augustimagination at 9:16 PM on November 20, 2017

Best answer: The film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has the line “Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?”

The line isn’t from a poem (as far as I know) but the title of the film is a line from Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope.
posted by Dwardles at 10:56 PM on November 20, 2017 [9 favorites]

I've been on a T.S. Eliot kick lately, and I'm pretty sure that is not a line from him. And I'm not as familiar with Bukowski, but my impression of him is that he tends to be more vulgar than that. I would look towards other sources.
posted by colfax at 3:00 AM on November 21, 2017

Could it possibly be the aria "Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio" from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro?
posted by Perodicticus potto at 5:32 AM on November 21, 2017

I agree with colfax, it's definitely not Eliot, and it's probably not Bukowski. It's actually a pretty common sentiment, and googling it without quotes gets 7,800,000 hits, all on the fairly common problem of being attracted to anyone one meets. (Googling it with quotes gets this page and three pages pointing to it.) So I am guessing there are millions of sources for this, but none by famous poets.
posted by ubiquity at 7:32 AM on November 21, 2017

No help on the poem per se, but if it's any help, a similar phrase is often quoted from Californication (as opposed to Mad Men)
posted by mean square error at 7:57 AM on November 21, 2017

Not a poem at all, but reminds me of Irwin Shaw's classic short story, The Girls in Their Summer Dresses
posted by Bron at 8:08 AM on November 21, 2017