To the Detroit Baseball Club
You've scooped the vealy city crowdOf glory and of purse--Why shouldn't Pegasus be proudTo trot you out in a verse?Chicago hoped to wallop youBy a tremendous score,But bit off more than it could chew,As witness: "5 to 4."
Well done, you 'Ganders! here's a handTo every one of you;These record-breakers of the landNow break themselves in two.Well get their pennant--it shall floatUpon our distant shore,So let each patriotic throatHurrah for "5 to 4."
Words in this poem
- wallop v. i.
- To move quickly, but with great effort; to gallop. [Prov. Eng. [Cf. OFlem. walop a gallop; of uncertain origin. Cf. Gallop.]
- tremendous a.
- Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall. [L. tremendus that is to be trembled at, fearful, fr. tremere to tremble. See Tremble.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- hurrah interj.
- A word used as a shout of joy, triumph, applause, encouragement, or welcome. [Cf. G., Dan., & Sw. hurra. Cf. Huzza.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Detroit Baseball Club is in the public domain. This text is taken from Hoosier Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #36150; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, To the Detroit Baseball Club, in Hoosier Lyrics (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36150, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-poems/to-the-detroit-baseball-club.html, id L11637.
Form and metre
To the Detroit Baseball Club is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABC-C- crowdA · purseB · proudA · verseB · youC · score · chewC · —
- 2 ABABC-C- handA · youB · landA · twoB · floatC · shore · throatC · —
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You've scooped the vealy city crowd | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of glory and of purse-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Why shouldn't Pegasus be proud | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| To trot you out in a verse? | 7 | ······· |
| Chicago hoped to wallop you | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| By a tremendous score, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| But bit off more than it could chew, | 8 | ········ |
| As witness: "5 to 4." | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Well done, you 'Ganders! here's a hand | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To every one of you; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| These record-breakers of the land | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Now break themselves in two. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Well get their pennant--it shall float | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Upon our distant shore, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| So let each patriotic throat | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Hurrah for "5 to 4." | 4 | ˘/·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.