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evieconrad · Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Northumberland

Hi

Imagine that one of your students had submitted a poem for you to mark but that you were convinced parts of it had been copied from another work.

What did the following lines come from?

"I know that people come to change... we'll grow apart. We'll pass, with age... And so our friendship is a phase... But how I've loved these days."

The words were printed in an old, British high-school yearbook from 1993, which I saw at a jumble sale. I liked the verse and wanted to find the complete song (or poem) but it has proved an impossible task. I'm sure I copied them down correctly but they may have been misquoted in the book.

Billy Joel's "I've Loved These Days" has been ruled out, as has "Cause We Are Friends", a poem which borrowed some of the lines in 2003. It can be seen on "allpoetry.com". It's supposedly the work of a 14 year-old girl from Missouri, called "lowridersgurl". She would have been four, when the lines appeared in the high school yearbook.

The most likely explanation is that "Cause We Are Friends" and the lines I saw in the book came from the same (pre-1993) source.

HSP · Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Posts: 92 Location: london

These lyrics are by "the Streets" its one of their first songs cant remebr what its cal it post 2000!!!!

evieconrad · Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Northumberland

Thanks for the info. I don't think you could be right, unless "The Streets" copied some of his lyrics from the source, for which I was looking.

It's quite some time, since I asked for help on this and it doesn't really matter any more. However, out of interest, I had a look through the lyrics of "The Streets" but I couldn't find anything, which was remotely like the lines I posted above.

The words can't have come from a "Brummie" rapper, who started performing in about 1998 or 1999. As I said, I saw them in a book, which was printed fourteen years ago.