Rubaiyat Of Spring

                    I.

Wake! For the sun has waked his piercing eye!

‘Tis only Laggards who of mornings Lie

     And miss the Robin’s dulcet Springtime note.

Wake! Less the Early Worm to You says “Fie!”

                    II.

Up with the Break o’ Day! The Cock has crew;

Cut the Tired Feeling and down stairs with you.

     Good Sulphur and Molasses waits you there

Or else the Housewife’s bitter Springtime Brew.

                    III.

Schoolbooks! O, how they rag through Days like these;

Little of Work or Study if you please.

     A pocketful of Marbles or a Top,

Or else a bobbing Kite flung to the Breeze.

                    IV.

Across the wild and barren spongy lot

A game of “Two-old-Cat” is waxing Hot;

     The Captain’s voice now makes the Welkin ring:

“Hi there! You’re out! Get off de Plate McSwatt!”

                    V.

The Marshland Orchestra is all Attune –

The Bull Frog Chorus from the dank Lagoon.

     The burden of their Strain seems but to be

That “Jug O’ Rums” can’t come a bit too Soon.

                    VI.

Hank Stubbs is held from tilling of the Land;

His wife has use for his big, strong Right Hand.

     Instead of Beating a desired Retreat,

He has to Beat the Rugs to Beat the Band!

                    VII.

The Long-Haired Bard sits in his Lonely Tower,

And writes his Verdant Verses by the Hour;

     While in the shed below his Wife revolves

A Wash Machine by unpoetic Power.

                    VIII.

The Guy who wants to be a Month ahead,

His Overcoat and Flannels he has Shed;

     He tries to smile at April’s chill, but See!

He looks as though he’d got a Pain instead.

                    IX.

Up ‘neath the Maple Trees the boy has Stole,

He has an Auger for to Bore a Hole;

     He wants to get some Sap; alas, alack,

The Farmer here pursues him with a Pole!

                    X.

With empty creel the Angler seeks the Bough

A Jug of Bait, a Box of Sardines – wow!

     And bread enough to make a Sandwich thick –

O. Wilderness what Joy and Pain hast Thou!

c. April 1, 1913

     Old cat (also known as ol' cat or cat-ball) games were bat-and-ball, safe haven games played in North America The games were numbered according to the number of bases. The number of bases varied according to the number of players. Only one old cat continues to be commonly played in the 21st century.

     One old cat, one eyed cat, or the contracted one-o'-cat was the basic version of the game, with a pitcher or giver; a batter or striker; a catcher, and sometimes another fielder or two. The striker, upon hitting the ball thrown by the giver, attempted to run to a single base (often the giver's position) and back again. The fielders tried to sting the striker-runner with a thrown ball while he or she was not touching the base. The striker would also be put out if the struck ball were caught in the air, or if they swung three times at the giver's deliveries and missed. One old cat, like scrub baseball, was a game of individuals—one against all—and not a team sport. Each base touched before 'out' (or just home) would score a point, although score was often not kept.

     In his book Base-Ball, John Montgomery Ward wrote that to initiate a game of one old cat, players called out a number to claim a position: one, two, etc.—one being the striker, two being the pitcher, and three the catcher. When an out was made the striker moved to the last position (e.g. five), five became four, four moved to three, three moved to two, and two took a turn as striker—the coveted position. Ward said that if more players were available for the game, there would be two batters opposite each other (as in cricket), and they ran to the opposite base when the ball was hit. This was two old cat.

     Three old cat had a triangular base layout and three strikers, while four old cat had four strikers and four bases in a square pattern. The Mills Commission, formed in 1905 to ascertain the origins of baseball, recorded many reminiscences of people playing three and four old cat in their youth. Baseball historian Harold Seymour reported that old cat games were still being played on the streets and vacant lots of Brooklyn in the 1920s.

     Albert Spalding suggested that four old cat was the immediate ancestor of town ball, from which baseball evolved. David Block's recent research indicates that old cat games evolved alongside baseball, as informal or practice versions when there were not enough players for a full game.

     One old cat is seeing a resurgence as a batting and fielding training game for younger little league and girl softball teams. Two games are played simultaneously on one diamond, one on the home third line and the other on the first-second line. Because the game is faster-paced than baseball and includes position rotation as a normal element, the chief objection young people voice about baseball, idle time in the field or waiting to bat, is directly addressed. The usual version is one-against-all and otherwise similar to that described above except, for safety, no stinging. The game is also well played with light plastic substitute balls where space is restricted.

     welkin – the sky or heaven


Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
(first eleven verses)
Translator: Edward Fitzgerald

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/246/pg246.txt

                       I.
Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight

     And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.
                       II.
Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,

     "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."
                       III.
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door

     You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more."
                       IV.
Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,

     Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough

Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.
                       V.
Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows;

     But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.
                       VI.
And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine
High piping Pelevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!

     Red Wine!"--the Nightingale cries to the Rose
That yellow Cheek of hers to'incarnadine.
                       VII.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling

     The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly--and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
                       VIII.
And look--a thousand Blossoms with the Day
Woke--and a thousand scatter'd into Clay:

     And this first Summer Month that brings the Rose
Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away.
                       IX.
But come with old Khayyam, and leave the Lot
Of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru forgot:

     Let Rustum lay about him as he will,
Or Hatim Tai cry Supper--heed them not.
                       X.
With me along some Strip of Herbage strown
That just divides the desert from the sown

     Where name of Slave and Sultan scarce is known,
And pity Sultan Mahmud on his Throne.

                        XI.
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse--and Thou
     Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.