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84-519: Common metre has been used for ballads such as " Tam Lin " and hymns such as " Amazing Grace " and the Christmas carol " O Little Town of Bethlehem ". The upshot of this commonality is that lyrics of one song can be sung to the tune of another; for example, " Advance Australia Fair ", " House of the Rising Sun ", Pokémon Theme and "Amazing Grace" can have their lyrics set to the tune of any of

168-659: A broad Irish accent, in 1893; an 1898 cylinder recording of the text made for the Columbia Graphophone label by Hunting can be accessed from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library. DeWolf Hopper 's more famous recorded recitation was released in October 1906. In 1946, Walt Disney released a recording of the narration of

252-652: A close tracking of his vaudeville career—did not find Kelly claiming to have been the author. "Casey at the Bat" was first published in The Daily Examiner on June 3, 1888. A month after the poem was published, it was reprinted as "Kelly at the Bat" in the New York Sporting Times . Aside from omitting the first five verses, the only changes from the original are substitutions of Kelly for Casey, and Boston for Mudville. King Kelly , then of

336-432: A commentary on his work it is uncertain exactly how and why he differentiated the 305 ballads printed that would be published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads . There have been many different and contradictory attempts to classify traditional ballads by theme, but commonly identified types are the religious, supernatural, tragic, love ballads, historic, legendary and humorous. The traditional form and content of

420-602: A further 400 have been identified as originating in America, including among the best known, ' The Ballad of Davy Crockett ' and ' Jesse James '. They became an increasing area of interest for scholars in the 19th century and most were recorded or catalogued by George Malcolm Laws , although some have since been found to have British origins and additional songs have since been collected. They are usually considered closest in form to British broadside ballads and in terms of style are largely indistinguishable, however, they demonstrate

504-486: A lusty yell; it rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; it knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, for Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat. There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place; there was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face. And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat, no stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at

588-422: A more pastoral form, like Isaac Bickerstaffe's Love in a Village (1763) and Shield's Rosina (1781), using more original music that imitated, rather than reproduced, existing ballads. Although the form declined in popularity towards the end of the 18th century its influence can be seen in light operas like that of Gilbert and Sullivan's early works like The Sorcerer as well as in the modern musical. In

672-484: A particular concern with occupations, journalistic style and often lack the ribaldry of British broadside ballads. The blues ballad has been seen as a fusion of Anglo-American and Afro-American styles of music from the 19th century. Blues ballads tend to deal with active protagonists, often anti-heroes, resisting adversity and authority, but frequently lacking a strong narrative and emphasizing character instead. They were often accompanied by banjo and guitar which followed

756-850: A product of the development of cheap print in the 16th century. They were generally printed on one side of a medium to large sheet of poor quality paper. In the first half of the 17th century, they were printed in black-letter or gothic type and included multiple, eye-catching illustrations, a popular tune title, as well as an alluring poem. By the 18th century, they were printed in white letter or roman type and often without much decoration (as well as tune title). These later sheets could include many individual songs, which would be cut apart and sold individually as "slip songs." Alternatively, they might be folded to make small cheap books or "chapbooks" which often drew on ballad stories. They were produced in huge numbers, with over 400,000 being sold in England annually by

840-571: A record $ 10,000 for him. He had a personality that fans liked to cheer or jeer. After the 1887 season, Kelly went on a playing tour to San Francisco. Thayer, who wrote "Casey" in 1888, covered the San Francisco leg for the San Francisco Examiner . Thayer, in a letter he wrote in 1905, mentions Kelly as showing "impudence" in claiming to have written the poem. The author of the 2004 definitive biography of Kelly—which included

924-415: A relatively short poem apparently dashed off quickly (and denied by its author for years), "Casey at the Bat" had a profound effect on American popular culture. It has been recited , re-enacted, adapted , dissected, parodied, and subjected to just about every other treatment one could imagine. Of the many parodies made of the poem, some of the notable ones include: There are three known translations of

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1008-477: A review in 1893 of a variety show he was in, the Indianapolis News said, "Many who attended the performance had heard of Kelly's singing and his reciting, and many had heard De Wolf Hopper recite 'Casey at the Bat' in his inimitable way. Kelly recited this in a sing-song, school-boy fashion." Upon Kelly's death, a writer would say he gained "considerable notoriety by his ludicrous rendition of 'Casey at

1092-406: A single, and Blake follows with a double that allows Flynn to reach third base. Both runners are now in scoring position and Casey represents the potential winning run. Casey is so sure of his abilities that he does not swing at the first two pitches, both called strikes. On the last pitch, the overconfident Casey strikes out swinging , ending the game and sending the crowd home unhappy. The text

1176-486: A stressed syllable) tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables), known as ballad meter . Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed (in the scheme a, b, c, b), which has been taken to suggest that, originally, ballads consisted of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. This can be seen in this stanza from " Lord Thomas and Fair Annet ": The horse | fair Ann | et rode | up on | He amb | led like |

1260-491: A thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. Many of the poems of Emily Dickinson use ballad metre. Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The Carriage held but just Ourselves And Immortality. Another American poem in ballad metre is Ernest Thayer's " Casey at the Bat ": The outlook wasn't brilliant for The Mudville Nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but One inning more to play. A modern example of ballad metre

1344-598: Is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America. While ballads have no prescribed structure and may vary in their number of lines and stanzas, many ballads employ quatrains with ABCB or ABAB rhyme schemes ,

1428-470: Is a metrical line of 14 syllables (usually seven iambic feet). Fourteeners typically occur in couplets. Fourteener couplets broken into quatrains (four-line stanzas) are equivalent to quatrains in common metre or ballad metre: instead of alternating lines of tetrameter and trimeter, a fourteener joins the tetrameter and trimeter lines to give seven feet per line. The fourteener gives the poet greater flexibility than common metre, in that its long lines invite

1512-494: Is filled with references to baseball as it was in 1888, which in many ways is not far removed from today's version. As a work, the poem encapsulates much of the appeal of baseball, including the involvement of the crowd. It also has a fair amount of baseball jargon that can pose challenges for the uninitiated. This is the complete poem as it originally appeared in The Daily Examiner . After publication, various versions with minor changes were produced. No one imagines that 'Casey'

1596-514: Is girt by sea; Our land abounds in nature's gifts Of beauty rich and rare; In hist'ry's page, let ev'ry stage Advance Australia Fair. In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair. The first English dubbed Pokémon theme: I want to be the very best, Like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, To train them is my cause. I will travel across the land, Searching far and wide. Teach Pokémon to understand, The power that's inside. Ballad A ballad

1680-442: Is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate; he pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate. And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go, and now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow. Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; the band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, and somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout; but there

1764-461: Is great in the sense that the poetry of Shakespeare or Dante is great; a comic ballad obviously must be judged by different standards. One doesn’t criticize a slice of superb apple pie because it fails to taste like crepes suzette . Thayer was only trying to write a comic ballad, with clanking rhymes and a vigorous beat, that could be read quickly, understood at once, and laughed at by any newspaper reader who knew baseball. Somehow, in harmony with

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1848-545: Is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out. Thayer said he chose the name "Casey" after a non-player of Irish ancestry he once knew named Daniel H. Casey; it is open to debate whom, if anyone, he modeled the character after. It has been reported that Thayer's best friend Samuel Winslow , who played baseball at Harvard , was the inspiration for Casey. Another candidate is National League player Mike "King" Kelly , who became famous when Boston paid Chicago

1932-498: Is often dramatized as a narrative of degeneration away from the pure 'folk memory' or 'immemorial tradition'. In the introduction to Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802) the romantic poet and historical novelist Walter Scott argued a need to 'remove obvious corruptions' in order to attempt to restore a supposed original. For Scott, the process of multiple recitations 'incurs the risk of impertinent interpolations from

2016-615: Is the common particular metre , 8.8.6.8.8.6., as in the tune Magdalen College , composed in 1774 by William Hayes, which has been used with the hymn "We Sing of God, the Mighty Source", by Christopher Smart . Common metre is often used in hymns , like this one by John Newton . Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. William Wordsworth 's "Lucy Poems" are also in common metre. A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed

2100-587: Is the folk song " House of the Rising Sun ". There is a house in New Orleans, They call the rising sun. And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl, And God, I know I'm one. "Gascoigns Good Night", by George Gascoigne , employs fourteeners . The stretching arms, the yawning breath, which I to bedward use, Are patterns of the pangs of death, when life will me refuse: And of my bed each sundry part in shadows doth resemble, The sundry shapes of death, whose dart shall make my flesh to tremble. "America

2184-423: Is the theme song to Gilligan's Island , infamously making it possible to sing any other ballad to that tune. The first two lines actually contain anapaests in place of iambs. This is an example of a ballad metre which is metrically less strict than common metre. Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. Another example

2268-462: The 1891 Australian shearers' strike , class conflicts between the landless working class and the squatters (landowners), and outlaws such as Ned Kelly , as well as love interests and more modern fare such as trucking . The most famous bush ballad is " Waltzing Matilda ", which has been called "the unofficial national anthem of Australia". Sentimental ballads, sometimes called "tear-jerkers" or "drawing-room ballads" owing to their popularity with

2352-495: The Boston Beaneaters , was one of baseball's two biggest stars at the time (along with Cap Anson ). In 1897, the magazine Current Literature noted the two versions and said, "The locality, as originally given, is Mudville, not Boston; the latter was substituted to give the poem local color." DeWolf Hopper gave the poem's first stage recitation on August 14, 1888, at New York's Wallack Theatre as part of

2436-623: The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra . On a 1997 CD set with memorable moments and stories from the game of baseball titled Take Me Out to the Ball Game produced by Jerry Hoffman and Douglas Duer, a Vincent Price oration of the poem is a slightly altered version of the original. In 1998, actor Sir Derek Jacobi recorded the poem with composer/arranger Randol Alan Bass and the National Symphony of London, with

2520-539: The Roxburghe Ballads collected by Robert Harley , (1661–1724), which paralleled the work in Scotland by Walter Scott and Robert Burns . Inspired by his reading as a teenager of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry by Thomas Percy , Scott began collecting ballads while he attended Edinburgh University in the 1790s. He published his research from 1802 to 1803 in a three-volume work, Minstrelsy of

2604-484: The comic opera Prinz Methusalem in the presence of the Chicago White Stockings and New York Giants baseball teams; August 14, 1888 was also Thayer's 25th birthday. Hopper became known as an orator of the poem, and recited it more than 10,000 times (by his count—some tabulations are as much as four times higher) before his death. "It is as perfect an epitome of our national game today as it

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2688-457: The pen name "Phin", based on Thayer's college nickname, "Phinney". Featuring a dramatic narrative about a baseball game, the poem was later popularized by DeWolf Hopper in many vaudeville performances. It has become one of the best-known poems in American literature . A baseball team from the fictional town of "Mudville" (the home team) is losing by two runs in its last inning. Both

2772-560: The wind |, With sil | ver he | was shod | be fore , With burn | ing gold | be hind |. There is considerable variation on this pattern in almost every respect, including length, number of lines and rhyming scheme, making the strict definition of a ballad extremely difficult. In southern and eastern Europe, and in countries that derive their tradition from them, ballad structure differs significantly, like Spanish romanceros , which are octosyllabic and use consonance rather than rhyme. Ballads usually are heavily influenced by

2856-542: The 1660s. Tessa Watt estimates the number of copies sold may have been in the millions. Many were sold by travelling chapmen in city streets or at fairs. The subject matter varied from what has been defined as the traditional ballad, although many traditional ballads were printed as broadsides. Among the topics were love, marriage, religion, drinking-songs, legends, and early journalism, which included disasters, political events and signs, wonders and prodigies. Literary or lyrical ballads grew out of an increasing interest in

2940-508: The 18th century ballad operas developed as a form of English stage entertainment , partly in opposition to the Italian domination of the London operatic scene. It consisted of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that are deliberately kept very short to minimize disruptions to the flow of the story. Rather than the more aristocratic themes and music of

3024-408: The 20th century, one of the most influential plays, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's (1928) The Threepenny Opera was a reworking of The Beggar's Opera , setting a similar story with the same characters, and containing much of the same satirical bite, but only using one tune from the original. The term ballad opera has also been used to describe musicals using folk music, such as The Martins and

3108-591: The Ancient Mariner . Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats were attracted to the simple and natural style of these folk ballads and tried to imitate it. At the same time in Germany Goethe cooperated with Schiller on a series of ballads, some of which were later set to music by Schubert . Later important examples of the poetic form included Rudyard Kipling's " Barrack-Room Ballads " (1892–6) and Oscar Wilde 's The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1897). In

3192-414: The Bat,' with which he concluded his 'turn' [act] at each performance." During the 1980s, the magic/comedy team Penn & Teller performed a version of "Casey at the Bat" with Teller (the "silent" partner) struggling to escape a straitjacket while suspended upside-down over a platform of sharp steel spikes. The set-up was that Penn Jillette would leap off his chair upon finishing the poem, releasing

3276-682: The Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates employs the common metre double, using a standard CM rhyme scheme for the first iteration, and a ballad metre scheme for the second. O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! Likewise " Advance Australia Fair " by Peter Dodds McCormick , Australia's national anthem : Australians all let us rejoice, For we are one and free; We've golden soil and wealth for toil; Our home

3360-663: The Coys in 1944, and Peter Bellamy's The Transports in 1977. The satiric elements of ballad opera can be seen in some modern musicals such as Chicago and Cabaret . Some 300 ballads sung in North America have been identified as having origins in Scottish traditional or broadside ballads. Examples include ' The Streets of Laredo ', which was found in Great Britain and Ireland as 'The Unfortunate Rake'; however,

3444-510: The Italian opera, the ballad operas were set to the music of popular folk songs and dealt with lower-class characters. Subject matter involved the lower, often criminal, orders, and typically showed a suspension (or inversion) of the high moral values of the Italian opera of the period. The first, most important and successful was The Beggar's Opera of 1728, with a libretto by John Gay and music arranged by John Christopher Pepusch , both of whom probably influenced by Parisian vaudeville and

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3528-613: The Middle Ages, there are many variations of each. The ballads remained an oral tradition until the increased interest in folk songs in the 18th century led collectors such as Bishop Thomas Percy (1729–1811) to publish volumes of popular ballads. In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a self-contained story, often concise, and rely on imagery, rather than description, which can be tragic, historical, romantic or comic. Themes concerning rural labourers and their sexuality are common, and there are many ballads based on

3612-698: The Minnelieder of the Minnesang tradition. The earliest example of a recognizable ballad in form in England is " Judas " in a 13th-century manuscript . Ballads were originally written to accompany dances, and so were composed in couplets with refrains in alternate lines. These refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance. Most northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains (four-line stanzas ) of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by

3696-618: The Mudville Nine. The team reverted to the Mudville Nine moniker for the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The Visalia Rawhide , another California League team, currently keeps Mudville alive playing in Mudville jerseys on June 3 each year. Despite the towns' rival claims, Thayer himself told the Syracuse Post-Standard that "the poem has no basis in fact." The poem has been adapted to diverse types of media: For

3780-408: The Mudville described in the poem. Residents of Holliston, Massachusetts , where there is a neighborhood called Mudville, claim it as the Mudville described in the poem. Thayer grew up in nearby Worcester, Massachusetts , where he wrote the poem in 1888; his family owned a wool mill less than 1 mi (1.6 km) from Mudville's baseball field. However, residents of Stockton, California —which

3864-601: The Robin Hood legend. Another common feature of ballads is repetition, sometimes of fourth lines in succeeding stanzas, as a refrain , sometimes of third and fourth lines of a stanza and sometimes of entire stanzas. Scholars of ballads have been divided into "communalists", such as Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) and the Brothers Grimm , who argue that ballads are originally communal compositions, and "individualists" such as Cecil Sharp , who assert that there

3948-474: The Scottish Border . Burns collaborated with James Johnson on the multi-volume Scots Musical Museum , a miscellany of folk songs and poetry with original work by Burns. Around the same time, he worked with George Thompson on A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice . Both Northern English and Southern Scots shared in the identified tradition of Border ballads , particularly evinced by

4032-542: The authors and performers are often referred to as bush bards. The 19th century was the golden age of bush ballads. Several collectors have catalogued the songs including John Meredith whose recording in the 1950s became the basis of the collection in the National Library of Australia . The songs tell personal stories of life in the wide open country of Australia. Typical subjects include mining, raising and droving cattle, sheep shearing , wanderings, war stories,

4116-535: The ballad form among social elites and intellectuals, particularly in the Romantic movement from the later 18th century. Respected literary figures Robert Burns and Walter Scott in Scotland collected and wrote their own ballads. Similarly in England William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced a collection of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 that included Coleridge's The Rime of

4200-416: The ballad were modified to form the basis for twenty-three bawdy pornographic ballads that appeared in the underground Victorian magazine The Pearl , which ran for eighteen issues between 1879 and 1880. Unlike the traditional ballad, these obscene ballads aggressively mocked sentimental nostalgia and local lore. Broadside ballads (also known as 'broadsheet', 'stall', 'vulgar' or 'come all ye' ballads) were

4284-410: The bat. Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt; five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt. Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip, defiance gleamed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip. And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air, and Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there. Close by

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4368-457: The blues musical format. The most famous blues ballads include those about John Henry and Casey Jones . The ballad was taken to Australia by early settlers from Great Britain and Ireland and gained particular foothold in the rural outback . The rhyming songs, poems and tales written in the form of ballads often relate to the itinerant and rebellious spirit of Australia in The Bush , and

4452-444: The burlesques and musical plays of Thomas d'Urfey (1653–1723), a number of whose collected ballads they used in their work. Gay produced further works in this style, including a sequel under the title Polly . Henry Fielding , Colley Cibber , Arne, Dibdin, Arnold, Shield, Jackson of Exeter, Hook and many others produced ballad operas that enjoyed great popularity. Ballad opera was attempted in America and Prussia. Later it moved into

4536-534: The common metre is the common-metre double , which as the name suggests, is the common metre repeated twice in each stanza, or 8.6.8.6.8.6.8.6. Traditionally the rhyming scheme should also be double the common metre and be ABABCDCD, but it often uses the ballad metre style, resulting in XAXAXBXB. Examples of this variant are " America the Beautiful " and " It Came Upon the Midnight Clear ". Likewise related

4620-629: The common themes of sailing and naval battles may also have prompted the use (at least in England) of popular ballads as naval recruitment tools. Key work on the traditional ballad was undertaken in the late 19th century in Denmark by Svend Grundtvig and for England and Scotland by the Harvard professor Francis James Child . They attempted to record and classify all the known ballads and variants in their chosen regions. Since Child died before writing

4704-625: The composer conducting. This work, titled "Casey at the Bat", has been recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart conducting. In 2013, Dave Jageler and Charlie Slowes , both radio announcers for the Washington Nationals , each made recordings of the poem for the Library of Congress to mark the 125th anniversary of its first publication. A rivalry of sorts has developed between two cities claiming to be

4788-564: The conceit of one rehearser, unintelligible blunders from the stupidity of another, and omissions equally to be regretted, from the want of memory of a third.' Similarly, John Robert Moore noted 'a natural tendency to oblivescence'. European Ballads have been generally classified into three major groups: traditional, broadside and literary. In America a distinction is drawn between ballads that are versions of European, particularly British and Irish songs, and 'Native American ballads', developed without reference to earlier songs. A further development

4872-502: The cross-border narrative in versions of " The Ballad of Chevy Chase " sometimes associated with the Lancashire-born sixteenth-century minstrel Richard Sheale . It has been suggested that the increasing interest in traditional popular ballads during the eighteenth century was prompted by social issues such as the enclosure movement as many of the ballads deal with themes concerning rural laborers. James Davey has suggested that

4956-513: The curious laws of humor and popular taste, he managed to produce the nation 's best-known piece of comic verse —a ballad that began a native legend as colorful and permanent as that of Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan . Martin Gardner, American Heritage The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; the score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play. And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did

5040-562: The end of the 15th century there are printed ballads that suggest a rich tradition of popular music. A reference in William Langland 's Piers Plowman indicates that ballads about Robin Hood were being sung from at least the late 14th century and the oldest detailed material is Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads printed about 1495. Early collections of English ballads were made by Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) and in

5124-401: The feet need not be iambs (with one unstressed and one stressed syllable): the number of unstressed syllables is variable. Ballad metre is "less regular and more conversational" than common metre. In each stanza, ballad form typically needs to rhyme only the second lines of the couplets, not the first, giving a rhyme scheme of ABCB, while common metre typically rhymes both the first lines and

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5208-401: The key being a rhymed second and fourth line. Contrary to a popular conception, it is rare if not unheard-of for a ballad to contain exactly 13 lines. Additionally, couplets rarely appear in ballads. Many ballads were written and sold as single-sheet broadsides . The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century,

5292-403: The medieval French chanson balladée or ballade , which were originally "dancing songs" ( L : ballare , to dance), yet becoming "stylized forms of solo song" before being adopted in England. As a narrative song, their theme and function may originate from Scandinavian and Germanic traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as Beowulf . Musically they were influenced by

5376-564: The middle classes, had their origins in the early " Tin Pan Alley " music industry of the later 19th century. They were generally sentimental, narrative, strophic songs published separately or as part of an opera (descendants perhaps of broadside ballads , but with printed music , and usually newly composed). Such songs include "Little Rosewood Casket" (1870), " After the Ball " (1892) and " Danny Boy ". The association with sentimentality led to

5460-468: The orchestra. It has since been performed more than 800 times by nearly every major and Metropolitan orchestra in the U.S. and Canada. In 1980, baseball pitcher Tug McGraw recorded Casey at The Bat—an American Folk Tale for Narrator and Orchestra by Frank Proto with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops . In 1996, actor James Earl Jones recorded the poem with arranger/composer Steven Reineke and

5544-471: The others. Historically, lyrics were not always wedded to tunes and would therefore be sung to any fitting melody; "Amazing Grace", for instance, was not set to the tune "New Britain" (with which it is most commonly associated today) until fifty-six years after its initial publication in 1779. Common metre is related to other poetic forms. Like common metre, ballad  metre comprises couplets of tetrameter (four feet) and trimeter (three feet). However,

5628-520: The poem by Jerry Colonna , which accompanied the studio's animated cartoon adaptation of the poem (see below). In 1973, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra commissioned its former Composer-in-Residence, Frank Proto , to create a work to feature Baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bench with the orchestra. The result "Casey At The Bat – an American Folk Tale for Narrator and Orchestra" was an immediate hit and recorded by Bench and

5712-660: The poem into a foreign language, one in French, written in 2007 by French Canadian linguist Paul Laurendeau, with the title Casey au bâton , and two in Hebrew. One by the sports journalist Menachem Less titled "התור של קייסי לחבוט" [Hator Shel Casey Lachbot], and the other more recent and more true to the original cadence and style by Jason H. Elbaum called קֵיסִי בַּמַּחְבֵּט [Casey BaMachbayt]. Casey Stengel describes in his autobiography how his original nickname "K.C." (for his hometown, Kansas City, Missouri ) evolved into "Casey". It

5796-598: The regions in which they originate and use the common dialect of the people. Scotland 's ballads in particular, both in theme and language, are strongly characterised by their distinctive tradition, even exhibiting some pre-Christian influences in the inclusion of supernatural elements such as travel to the Fairy Kingdom in the Scots ballad "Tam Lin". The ballads do not have any known author or correct version; instead, having been passed down mainly by oral tradition since

5880-450: The rising tumult; he bade the game go on; he signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew; but Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said: "Strike two." "Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and Echo answered "fraud!"; but one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, and they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again. The sneer

5964-417: The rope which supported Teller, and send Teller to a gruesome death if Teller had failed to free himself by that time. Jillette enhanced the drama of the performance by drastically accelerating the pace of his recital after the first few stanzas, greatly reducing the time that Teller had left to work free from his bonds. The first recorded version of "Casey at the Bat" was made by Russell Hunting , speaking in

6048-403: The same, a sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast; they thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that – they'd put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat. But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake, and the former was a lulu and the latter

6132-458: The second lines, ABAB. A ballad in groups of four lines with a rhyme scheme of ABCB is known as the ballad stanza . He does not rise in pit eous haste    To put on con vict- clothes , While some coarse -mouthed Doc tor gloats , and notes    Each new and nerve -twitched pose , Fing ering a watch whose litt le ticks    Are like horr ible ham mer- blows . The fourteener

6216-461: The sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped— "That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one," the umpire said. From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore. "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand; and it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand. With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone; he stilled

6300-420: The team and its fans, a crowd of 5,000, believe that they can win if Casey, Mudville's star player, gets to bat. However, Casey is scheduled to be the fifth batter of the inning, and the first two batters (Cooney and Barrows) fail to get on base. The next two batters (Flynn and Jimmy Blake) are perceived to be weak hitters with little chance of reaching base to allow Casey a chance to bat. Surprisingly, Flynn hits

6384-719: The term "ballad" being used for slow love songs from the 1950s onwards. Modern variations include " jazz ballads ", " pop ballads ", " rock ballads ", " R&B ballads " and " power ballads ". Casey at the Bat " Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888 " is a mock-heroic poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer . It was first published anonymously in The San Francisco Examiner (then called The Daily Examiner ) on June 3, 1888, under

6468-412: The term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is often used for any love song, particularly the sentimental ballad of pop or rock music, although the term is also associated with the concept of a stylized storytelling song or poem, particularly when used as a title for other media such as a film. A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music . Ballads derive from

6552-544: The use of variably placed caesuras and spondees to achieve metrical variety, in place of a fixed pattern of iambs and line breaks. Whose sense in so evil consort, their stepdame Nature lays, That ravishing delight in them most sweet tunes do not raise; Or if they do delight therein, yet are so cloyed with wit, As with sententious lips to set a title vain on it: O let them hear these sacred tunes, and learn in wonder’s schools, To be (in things past bounds of wit) fools, if they be not fools. Another common adaptation of

6636-438: Was a cake, so upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, for there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat. But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all, and Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball; and when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred, there was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third. Then from five thousand throats and more there rose

6720-497: Was influenced not just by the name of the poem, which was widely popular in the 1910s, but also because he tended to strike out frequently in his early career so fans and writers started calling him "strikeout Casey". On July 11, 1996, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp depicting "Mighty Casey." The stamp was part of a set commemorating American folk heroes . Other stamps in

6804-466: Was known for a time as Mudville prior to incorporation in 1850—also lay claim to being the inspiration for the poem. In 1887, Thayer covered baseball for The Daily Examiner —owned by his Harvard classmate William Randolph Hearst —and is said to have covered the local California League team, the Stockton Ports . For the 1902 season , after the poem became popular, Stockton's team was renamed

6888-438: Was one single original author. Communalists tend to see more recent, particularly printed, broadside ballads of known authorship as a debased form of the genre, while individualists see variants as corruptions of an original text. More recently scholars have pointed to the interchange of oral and written forms of the ballad. The transmission of ballads comprises a key stage in their re-composition. In romantic terms this process

6972-454: Was the evolution of the blues ballad, which mixed the genre with Afro-American music. For the late 20th century the music publishing industry found a market for what are often termed sentimental ballads, and these are the origin of the modern use of the term 'ballad' to mean a slow love song. The traditional, classical or popular (meaning of the people) ballad has been seen as beginning with the wandering minstrels of late medieval Europe. From

7056-410: Was when every player drank his coffee from a mustache cup . There are one or more Caseys in every league , bush or big, and there is no day in the playing season that this same supreme tragedy , as stark as Aristophanes for the moment, does not befall on some field." On stage in the early 1890s, baseball star Kelly recited the original "Casey" a few dozen times and not the parody. For example, in

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