Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Though its author remained otherwise undistinguished, today's poem–with all its ecstasy, agony, and irony–has become almost as essential to the American experience as baseball itself. Happy reading!

Ernest Lawrence Thayer was born on August 14, 1863, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He graduated with a BA in philosophy from Harvard University in 1885, where he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and edited the Harvard Lampoon.

At Harvard, Thayer met William Randolph Hearst, who would later run the San Francisco Examiner and hire Thayer to write a humorous column for the newspaper. On June 3, 1883, Thayer published what would become his most famous work, the poem "Casey at the Bat," under the pen name Phin. The poem gained popularity after the performer William DeWolf Hopper incorporated a recitation of it into his theatrical and radio performances.

Thayer moved to Santa Barbara, California, in 1912. He died in Santa Barbara on August 21, 1940.

-bio via Academy of American Poets

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
0:04.7	I am Sean Johnson, and today is Monday, October 21st, 2024.
0:10.2	The World Series of Baseball is just around the corner,
0:14.4	and in honor of that pinnacular performance of America's favorite pastime,
0:19.3	today's poem is perhaps the most famous baseball poem ever
0:24.1	written. It's one of the most famous or recognizable poems ever written, arguably, at least in America.
0:31.8	It's Casey at the Bat by Ernest Thayer. Every sports fan knows the thrill of victory as well as the agony of defeat.
0:39.9	In this year's pro baseball playoff season, teams like the Mets have experienced an unusual glimmer
0:46.3	of hope while the Brewers and the Phillies have had their hopes dashed suddenly and
0:52.5	unexpectedly.
0:54.0	And that's baseball, folks. Thayer first published this poem in
0:57.6	1888 in a California newspaper owned by his college buddy, William Randolph-Hurst. And it's a good
1:04.8	thing for all of us that he had connections like that, because otherwise we probably wouldn't
1:09.7	be reading this poem today.
1:11.8	Thayer is remembered for little else, and even Casey at the bat probably only enjoys the
1:17.1	popularity and ubiquity, which it does today, because a well-known comedian was given a copy of
1:24.3	the poem and began to incorporate it into his axe.
1:29.5	Thayer's seven-foot lines give this poem a loose light tone.
1:36.1	There's something sing-songy about it,
1:38.5	which matches the expectation of easy victory that is carried through most of the poem. There's certainly in the mind
1:48.8	of the mighty Casey himself and sets us up so beautifully for the ironic turn at the end when Casey does
1:56.7	what he is now famous for doing. But there's a whole range of drama that takes place in
	...

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