1844.18

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Melville (Maybe) Describes Baseball Game Poetically

Salience	Peripheral
Tags	Ball in the CultureBall in the Culture
Location
City/State/Country:	MA, USA
Modern Address
Game	Base BallBase Ball
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	JuvenileJuvenile
Holiday
Notables
Text	And now hurrah! for the speeding ball Is flung in viewless air, And where it will strike in its rapid fall The boys are hastening there-- And the parted lip and the eager eye Are following its descent, Whilst the baffl'd stumbler's falling cry With th'exulting shout is blent. The leader now of either band Picks cautiously his men, And the quickest foot and the roughest hand Are what he chooses then. And see!the ball with swift rebound, Flies from the swinging bat, While the player spurns the beaten ground, Nor heeds his wind-caught hat. But the ball is stopp'd in its quick career, And is sent with a well-aim'd fling, And he dodges to feel it whistling near, Or leaps at its sudden sting, Whilst the shot is hail'd with a hearty shout, As the wounded one stops short, For his 'side' by the luckless blow is out-- And the others wait their sport.
Sources	This poem, published pseudonymously as the work of "William M. Christy" in 1845, is Melville's first published book, per Melville scholar Jeanne C. Howes, author of a monograph entitled '"Poet of a Morning: Herman Melville and the 'Redburn Poem': Redburn: Or the Schoolmaster of a Morning". 19cbb post by John Thorn, July 6, 2004
Warning	In the case of the Redburn poem, a strong competing interpretation concludes that HM is not its author. I can't argue either side of Howes' hypothesis since I have not read her work, and I only have a couple hundred words of notes on the topic, but I think we all readily understand that the attribution of Melville as author of this four canto poem is not universally accepted." 19cbb post by Stephen Hoy, July 6, 2004
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External Number
Submitted by	Bob Tholkes,
Submission Note	2/12/2015
Has Supplemental Text

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1844.18

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