A Sonnet for Opening Day

Today is opening day for most teams in Major League Baseball, so, continuing what has become an annual tradition, I present my Sonnet For Opening Day. Play Ball!

That time of year thou mayst in fans behold
That malediction, fever of the spring
Surrounded by lingering snow and cold,
We dream of pennants and World Series rings.
With pride we root our noble heroes on
Eating hot dogs, peanuts, and crackerjacks
And all our worldly troubles fade, are gone
When that first pitch is thrown and bat doth crack
But Lo! When April fades to crueler months,
We reach the summer of our discontent
Like Mighty Casey in the Mudville ninth
Our hearts bereft of joy and merriment
Yet hope springs eternal for one and all,
When that blue-clad umpire calls out, “Play Ball!”

–A. A. Rubin

While the baseball season is just beginning, my Backerkit campaign for The Awful Alphabet is quickly drawing to a close. There are just under to weeks to support the project and secure your copy of the book. Support the campaign here.

My Baseball Sonnet, an Opening Day Tradition

It’s become an opening day tradition for me to post my Baseball Sonnet on Opening Day. So, to honor that tradition–and to mark the start of the Major League Baseball Season, here it is:

Baseball Sonnet

That time of year thou mayst in fans behold
That malediction, fever of the spring–
Surrounded by lingering snow and cold,
We dream of pennants and World Series rings.
With pride we root our noble heroes on,
Eating hot dogs, peanuts, and crackerjacks–
And all our worldly troubles fade, are gone,
When that first pitch is thrown and bat doth crack.
But Lo! When April fades to crueler months,
We reach the summer of our discontent–
Like Mighty Casey in the Mudville ninth–
With hearts bereft of joy and merriment.
Yet hope springs eternal for one and all,
When that blue-clad umpire calls out, “Play Ball!”

–A. A. Rubin

If you enjoy baseball and literature, check out the series of Spring Training books which I’ve been posting on Instagram.

Enjoy your opening day, the one day of the year when hope springs eternal.

A Sonnet for Opening Day

Happy #OpeningDay and #NationalPoetry month. Continuing a tradition I’ve established over the last few years, here is my “Baseball Sonnet” to mark the occasion. Play ball!

Baseball Sonnet

by A. A. Rubin

That time of year thou mayst in fans behold
That malediction, fever of the spring–
Surrounded by lingering snow and cold,
We dream of pennants and World Series rings.
With pride we root our noble heroes on,
Eating hot dogs, peanuts, and crackerjacks–
And all our worldly troubles fade, are gone,
When that first pitch is thrown and bat doth crack.
But Lo! When April fades to crueler months,
We reach the summer of our discontent–
Like Mighty Casey in the Mudville ninth–
With hearts bereft of joy and merriment.
Yet hope springs eternal for one and all,
When that blue-clad umpire calls out, “Play Ball!”

A Baseball Sonnet For Opening Day

This year, opening day of the baseball season happens to fall on the first day of National Poetry Month. In honor of these two concurrent occasions, I present my poem, “Baseball Sonnet”.

Baseball Sonnet

That time of year thou mayst in fans behold
That malediction, fever of the spring
Surrounded by lingering snow and cold,
We dream of pennants and World Series rings.
With pride we root our noble heroes on
Eating hot dogs, peanuts, and crackerjacks
And all our worldly troubles fade, are gone
When that first pitch is thrown and bat doth crack
But Lo! When April fades to crueler months,
We reach the summer of our discontent
Like Mighty Casey in the Mudville ninth
With hearts bereft of joy and merriment
Yet hope springs eternal for one and all,
When that blue-clad umpire calls out, “Play Ball!”

Since I posted this poem last year as well (I hope to make it an annual tradition). Here are some links to some of my favorite baseball poems by other poets:

Casey at the Bat by Earnest Lawrence Thayer 

Baseball Canto by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The Pitcher by Robert Francis

Baseballs Sad Lexicon by Franklin Pierce Adams.

Also, be sure to check out my reading of baseball poetry, which will be my first in a series of reading for National Poetry Month, later today on my Instagram page.

Some Baseball Poetry In Honor Of Opening Day

Today is (finally) opening day of the 2020 baseball season. Back on March 26th, I published a baseball sonnet here, and people seemed to like it. So today, on day that, traditionally, symbolizes hope, I present a couple of more baseball poems I’ve written to help get you in the mood for upcoming season.

The first poem is a “golden shovel” poem after the line “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” from the greatest baseball poem of all time, “Casey At The Bat,” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. For those who are unaware, golden shovel is a form of poetry wherein the poet takes a line or stanza from a famous poem, and uses the borrowed words as the end-words of each line of the new poem.

Opening Day
A Golden Shovel after Ernest Lawrence Thayer

There is one day each year when every team has hope
Which rises like a fever; in our hearts it springs
Recurring, eternal
Each year down in
The land of grapefruits and cacti it grows like the
First crocus incongruously purple in the snow. Until that day when it thaws the cold human Heart and lets hope—at least for one day—spring, again, eternal in the human breast

The second poem is describes an at bat.

The Strikeout

The bend of the arm,
Like the crack of the whip
That ball is on him,
Quick, quick, quick–

The fastball zips by,
A shot from a gun–
The batter swings through it,
Whiff—Strike one–

The ball is released,
The same as before.
The batter gears up,
To offer once more–

But here t
h
e
B
                     a
                            l
l
                           B
                     e
n
          d
s
It
d
r
o
p
s
to the dirt–
The curve ball has fooled him,
He almost got hurt.

0-2 is the count,
And one he will waste:
Though he started his cut,
The batter checked it with haste

Now here comes the next pitch.
Thrown true and straight–
The batter swings quickly,
So he won’t be late–

Midway through his hack,
Oh no! does he sing,
The pitcher has tricked him,
By p – u – l – l – i – n – g – t – h -e – s – t – r – i – n – g

He tries to hold up,
But he can not, you see–
Fooled by the change-up,
He’s swung through, strike three.

And, because people seemed to enjoy it last time, here is the sonnet I posted on what was originally supposed to be opening day:

That time of year thou mayst in fans behold
That malediction, fever of the spring
Surrounded by lingering snow and cold,
We dream of pennants and World Series rings.
With pride we root our noble heroes on
Eating hot dogs, peanuts, and crackerjacks
And all our worldly troubles fade, are gone
When that first pitch is thrown and bat doth crack
But Lo! When April fades to crueler months,
We reach the summer of our discontent
Like Mighty Casey in the Mudville ninth
Our hearts bereft of joy and merriment
Yet hope springs eternal for one and all,
When that blue-clad umpire calls out, “Play Ball!”

Happy opening day: Play Ball!

If you’re enjoying my poetry, please check out these two new anthologies, each of which includes one of my poems: Nassau County Voices In Verse; Prompting the Moon, and connect with me on facebook, twitter, and instagram for all my latest news and discussion.