When I was in grade school, I had a boy in my class who had a "mentor" if you would call it. He was an old man, maybe 60 or 70, who adored children so he volunteered at the school. Eventually they paired him up with this boy and that became his only job. He would come and spend the entire school day with him a few times a week. I've never seen an unrelated adult have a bigger effect on a child than he had on this boy. Anyway, every year on the last day of school he would give a performance of this poem to our class. He had it memorized by heart and the way he told it was the most inspiring thing I've ever heard. As soon as I saw "Casey at the Bat" I said to myself "Casey. Mighty Casey. Just. Struck. Out." Because that was the way that he ended it. This poem was one of the most memorable and influential things for me as a child.
I love hearing about how poetry stays with people. Even those who aren't necessarily fond of poetry as a whole sometimes have great stories like this. I remember, in 4th grade, maybe even in 3rd, the librarian at our school read us "The Raven" on Halloween. That was pretty darn cool.