The
crowd at
the ball game
is
moved uniformly
by a spirit of uselessness
which delights them --
all the exciting detail
of the chase
and the escape, the error
the flash of genius --
all to no end save beauty
the eternal --
So in detail they, the crowd,
are beautiful
for this
to be warned against
saluted and defied --
It is alive, venomous
it smiles grimly
its words cut --
The flashy female with her
mother, gets it --
The Jew gets it straight -- it
is deadly, terrifying --
It is the Inquisition, the
Revolution
It is beauty itself
that lives
day by day in them
idly --
This is
the power of their faces
It is summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is
cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail
permanently, seriously
without thought
- William Carlos Williams