The crowd at the ball game
is moved uniformly
by a spirit of uselessness
which delights them—
all the exciting detail
of the chase
and the escape, the error
the flash of genius—
all to no end save beauty
the eternal—
So in detail they, the crowd,
are beautiful
for this
to be warned against
saluted and defied—
It is alive, venomous
it smiles grimly
its words cut—
The flashy female with her
mother, gets it—
The Jew gets it straight— it
is deadly, terrifying—
It is the Inquisition, the
Revolution
It is beauty itself
that lives
day by day in them
idly—
This is
the power of their faces
It is summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is
cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail
permanently, seriously
without thought
this is confusing me just a tiny bit
I just like to say “Taquantatanta Lamauntafanta”.
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.
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
Really great poem. It has alot of powerful messages.
This poem represents mob mentality, and the speaker seems to have an omniscient point of view like that of a blimp driver floating over the game seeing the crowd as one living, breathing, thinking creature rather than many.
This poem is quite referential to the works of Emily Dickinson. Use of hyphens is the first key. In addition, short microcosms consume each stanza. Finally, metaphor is apparent; such as: “a spirit of uselessness which delights them-“. This compares the crowd to “uselessness”.
I think it kind of shows how a crowd can be cruel. Discriminatory or otherwise. This poem really made me think..
that reminded me of the kkk
A great indictment of herd mentality.Personification showing how a crowd/mob can take on a life of it’s own.I just heard that a 21 year old jounalism student was struck dead in Boston, while she was in a crowd of revelers celebrating the winning of the pennant.
this poem is a very very good poem!! 🙂