The Crowd At The Ball Game - A poem by William Carlos Williams

Comment 9 of 10, added on April 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 PM.

This poem reminds me of Julius Caesar's rise to power and the Roman Coliseum. Julius Caesar was a diplomatic and military genius. He escaped accusations of treason, caused the Roman Senate to make several critical errors, and gave show of his military genius in the battle of Pharsalus.
The Coliseum was used as a means of entertainment. What better way to keep an impoverished people from revolting then to keep them entertained and fed. The Coliseum gave them both.
I agree with Derek Burns about the Roman Catholic Tribunal as well.
This said I think he's not just warning against the dangers of crowd mentality but about organized sports. The stadiums used in today's sports may not all be a giant circle, but the crowd still "encircles" the field. The crowd is just as obnoxious as it was in the Roman time period. But I think most of all he's illustrating a parallel in hopes that we won't become so consumed with sporting events that we begin to forget about what the government is doing.

Matt Lilly from United States

Comment 8 of 10, added on February 25th, 2008 at 4:48 AM.

I think the Inquisition in line 23 is the Roman Catholic tribunal for the exposition and persecution of heretics, only finally abolished in the early 19th century. Williams could be saying a crowd is like this in the way it discriminates and persecutes

Derek Burns from United States

Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, The Crowd At The Ball Game, has received 10 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by William Carlos Williams with others on the American Poems poetry forum!