William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
The crowd at the ball game
XXVI
1The crowd at the ball game
2is moved uniformly
3by a spirit of uselessness
4which delights them --
5all the exciting detail
6of the chase
7and the escape, the error
8the flash of genius --
9all to no end save beauty
10the eternal --
11So in detail they, the crowd,
12are beautiful
13for this
14to be warned against
15saluted and defied --
16It is alive, venomous
17it smiles grimly
18its words cut --
19The flashy female with her
20mother, gets it --
21The Jew gets it straight -- it
22is deadly, terrifying --
23It is the Inquisition, the
24Revolution
25It is beauty itself
26that lives
27day by day in them
28idly --
29This is
30the power of their faces
31It is summer, it is the solstice
32the crowd is
33cheering, the crowd is laughing
34in detail
35permanently, seriously
36without thought
Notes
23] Inquisition: perhaps the Roman Catholic tribunal for the exposition and persecution of heretics, only finally abolished in the early 19th century.
31] solstice: June 22, a point on the ecliptic at which the sun is further north from the celestial equator.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Carlos Williams, Spring and All ([Paris]: Contact, 1923): 93-95. PS 3545 .I544S7 1970 Victoria College Library
First publication date:
August
1923
Publication date note: The Dial 75.2 (August 1923)
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/2/20
Form: couplets
Rhyme: unrhyming
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