Baseball Anthology Essay Research Paper ANALYSIS OF

Crack!

Ho-hum.

This poem is talking about a professional baseball player, “Overdog” Johnson. It is saying that he is always a winner. When he is up to bat he hits whatever comes in the hitting zone

BASEBALL

Baseball is fun; its sometimes rough.

If you’re good or bad, baseball always tough.

Cooperstown is the home of baseball greats.

Everyone’s welcome to watch in any stadium or state.

Strike one, Strike two, on the way to an out. 5

The confidence is shouting from in the dugout.

The third pitch comes; it’s in the strike zone.

Going, going, gone! The other team moans.

Your pride builds as you run the bases:

First, Second, Third, . Stop to tie your laces! 10 symbol

This concludes a poem about a mini baseball hero.

And, in case your wondering, the score was 4-0.

This poem was about me when my last game in pony baseball. We were 0-0 until the last inning I hit a grandslam . We won 4-0.

THE TEST

Never mind the speed you’ve got,

Never mind about your curve,

Though it sails around a lot

With a zigzag and a swerve;

How you grip or twist the ball 5

Enters not upon the scroll;

Here’s the answer to it all:

How is your control?

Never mind how hard you swing,

Or the keenness of your eye, 10

As the pitcher takes a fling

And the pellet whistles by;

With the hard-fought battle done,

Here’s the answer to it all:

When a base hit might have won, 15

Did you hit the ball?

Never mind about the luck,

On the umpire robbing you-

How the Fates were there to buck

Everything you tried to do; 20

Cut it out and let it go;

In the Book of Praise or Blame

This is all there is to know

Did you play the game?

This poem talks about a coach telling the players to stop blaming the game on each other. To play the game is teamwork because everyone didn’t do their part. You shouldn’t blame the game on the pitchers, batters nor the umpires. Blame it on yourself as a team. I chose this poem because this is practically the truth about a game. There is always people blaming each other. The game of baseball you play, win and lose as a team.

GAME CALLED

GAME CALLED. Across the field of play.

the dusk has come, the hour is late,

the fight is done and lost or won the

player files out through the gate.

The tumult dies, the cheer is hushed, 5

the stands are bare, the park is still,

But through the night there shines the light,

home beyond the silent ill.

GAME CALLED. Where in the golden light

the bugle rolled the reveille. 10

The shadows creep, where night falls deep,

and taps has called the end of play.

The game is done, the scores is in,

the final cheer and jeer have passed. assonance

But in the night, beyond the fight, 15

the player finds his rest at last.

GAME CALLED. Upon the field of life. metaphor the darkness gathers far and wide,

the dream is done, the scores is spun,

that stands forever in the guide. 20

Nor victory, nor yet defeat,

is chalked against the players name.

But down the roll, the final scroll,

shows only, how he played the game.

This poem is using extended metaphor. It is comparing baseball with life. It seems that the author is trying to tell thatwhen its time for the game to be over the game is called no matter if you win or lose just like life. When it’s ready for you to go (die), God will call you and it will be gamed called for you.

Bibliography

WORK CITED

1. www.dodgers.com/gamecalled.html

2. American Sports Poems selected by R.R. Knudson and May Swenson. pgs.31-32 Orchard books NY, NY 1988

3. Rice, Grantland “Baseball Ballads” pgs. 40, 128 Tennessean Co. Nashville, TN 1910

4. “Sports Poems” ed. by R.R. Knudson and P.K. Ebert. pg. 11

Dell Publishing Co. NY, NY 1971

5. “Extra Innings” selected by Lee Bennet Hopkins. pgs. 3, 19, 30, 32

6. Stephen Stepanchev, “May Swenson”, in his American Poetry Since 1945: A Critical Survey (copyright 1965 by Stephen Stepanchev; reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.) Harper, 1965, pp202-04. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism vol.4 ed. Carolyn Raley. Detroit; Gale Research 1975 pg 532.

7. Eichwald, Richard A. “May Swenson” Critical Survey Poetry vol.7 ed. Frank N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Salemn Press, 1982 pg. 2794