Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OPENING DAY, by WILLIAM A. PHELON First Line: Every fan is packed as closely as a neatly packed Last Line: Baseball has been duly startedit's the close of opening day! Subject(s): Baseball; Sports | ||||||||
EVERY fan is packed as closely as a neatly packed sardine, They have overflowed the bleachers and are thronged upon the green They compel the use of ground-rules, they restrict the fielders' leaps, And the ball that hits among them is a ball that's gone for keeps! Flags are flapping, bands are crashingby these tokens be it known, That the ruler, Old King Baseball, has again resumed the throne! From the massed and eager thousands there ascends a mighty roar, As their enemies, the umpires, don their uniforms once more Then a whoop of joy ecstatic, rising till it meets the blue, As the pitcher's sturdy sinews send the first strike whizzing through! Evening nearsthe tumult lessensthrough the falling dusk and dark, Come the weary-throated thousands, ebbing from the trampled park. With tremendous glee those thousands greet the sinking of the sun, Caroling their joyous war criesthat is, if the home club won! If the home club lostGreat Caesar!hear the long lugubrious howls, Hear the startling execrations, and the sullen, wolfish growls! What's the difference! you wonderone game in a year is small But, to half of all those thousandsOpening Day looms up as ALL! Joyous, then, or discontented, they flock out upon their way Baseball has been duly startedit's the close of Opening Day! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPORT STORY OF A WINNER by GLYN MAXWELL WOMAN SKATING by MARGARET ATWOOD FISHING IN WINTER by RALPH BURNS CAPPER KAPLINSKI AT THE NORTH SIDE CUE CLUB by HAYDEN CARRUTH JACKIE ROBINSON by LUCILLE CLIFTON FOR THE DEATH OF VINCE LOMBARDI by JAMES DICKEY THE DEATH OF THE RACE CAR DRIVER by NORMAN DUBIE A FOOL THERE WAS by WILLIAM A. PHELON |
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