Instructor's take: Casey at the Bat
By JERRY GILL
Many years ago, when I was teaching at a college in Florida, I was asked by the graduating seniors to be their commencement speaker.
It was when the Vietnam war was grinding down, President Richard Nixon was being impeached, and the civil rights movement was in full swing. Difficult times indeed.
I chose to interpret the famous poem “Casey at the Bat” by E. L. Thayer as a description of the failure of the United States to fulfill its promise to lead the world toward peace and justice. As the poem’s opening line has it: “The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day,” the outlook for our country was indeed not brilliant. Although the minor theme of the speech was the failure of the United States to deal effectively with its own problems, as well as those of the ...