The game of cricket has inspired much poetry, most of which romanticises the sport and its culture.
Poems
Cricket: An Heroic Poem
Hail, cricket| Glorious, manly, British Game!
First of all Sports! be first alike in Fame.
The poem by James Love is too long to quote in full; above are its opening two lines. It describes a match in 1744 between Kent and England. It is written in rhyming couplets. According to H.S. Altham, it "should be in every cricket lover's library" and "his description of the game goes with a rare swing".[1] The poem is the first substantial piece of literature about cricket.[citation needed]
Not long before his death and long after he had watched Hornby and Barlow bat at Old Trafford, Thompson was invited to watch Lancashire play Middlesex at Lord's. As the day of the match grew closer, Thompson became increasingly nostalgic. At the end, he did not go for the match, but sat at home and wrote At Lord's. The original match in 1878 ended in a draw, with Gloucestershire needing 111 to win with five wickets in hand, Grace 58*.[3]
The first stanza of the poem has contributed the titles of at least three books on cricket:
The satirical magazine Punch printed the following poem following a particularly slow and boring innings by William Scotton. It mimicked Tennyson's "Break, break, break".[6]
When Alfred Mynn died in 1861, William Jeffrey Prowse penned a poem in his memory. The first six stanzas compare Mynn with his contemporaries and the poem closes with these lines:
With his tall and stately presence, with his nobly moulded form,
His broad hand was ever open, his brave heart was ever warm;
All were proud of him, all loved him. As the changing seasons pass,
As our champion lies a-sleeping underneath the Kentish grass,
Proudly, sadly will we name him – to forget him were a sin.
Lightly lie the turf upon thee, kind and manly Alfred Mynn![7]
Les Murray
The Australian poet Les Murray wrote "The Aboriginal Cricketer":
Australian poet Damian Balassone often employs cricket themes, such as in the poem "Strange Dismissal", which appears in Quadrant magazine:
It sounds silly
but it’s harsh
to be caught Lillee
bowled Marsh,
but that’s what happened to me
the over prior to tea.
Miscellaneous verses and songs
"The Surrey Poet" on Jack Hobbs
Albert Craig, better known as "The Surrey Poet", was a popular figure at The Oval at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, hawking his rapidly improvised verses to the crowd. Of Jack Hobbs' County Championship debut he wrote:
Joy reigned in the Pavilion,
And gladness 'mongst his clan
While thousands breathed good wishes round the ring;
At Lord's in 1950, West Indies defeated England in England for the first time. Egbert Moore, who sang under the pseudonym Lord Beginner, popularized the most famous of cricketing calypsos to celebrate the occasion. He was accompanied by Calypso Rhythm Kings, "supervision" by Denis Preston. It was recorded on the Melodisc (1133) label (MEL 20). The song was originally composed by Lord Kitchener.[14]
"The Victory Calypso" also immortalised the spin bowling pair of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. The calypso begins thus:
Tyson taught them a lesson that can't be forgotten,
Tyson taught them a lesson that can't be forgotten,
We began quietly, but we came back with victory,
Good captaincy from Len Hutton, but the honours must go to Typhoon Tyson.
Australia's tragedy, it began at Sydney,
Magnificent Tyson, had their batsmen beaten,
He went on to give us, a victory for Christmas,
Good captaincy from Len Hutton, but the honours must go to Typhoon Tyson.
More shocks for Australia, the Melbourne disaster,
As Favell got going, his wicket went tumbling,
We got them out cheaply, and score second victory,
Good captaincy from Len Hutton, but the honours must go to Typhoon Tyson.
The bowling was so good, it remind them of Larwood,
Magnificent Tyson finished with seven for twenty-seven,
They had no excuses, we regained the Ashes,
Good captaincy from Len Hutton, but the honours must go to Typhoon Tyson.[15]
Gavaskar Calypso
Lord Relator (born Willard Harris) wrote the "Gavaskar Calypso" to celebrate Gavaskar's first Test series, in West Indies in 1970–71. This was voted at No. 68 at a "Calypso of the Century" poll (although "Victory Calypso" did not feature in the list).[16]
The most famous part of the "Gavaskar Calypso" is the one that describes how he batted "like a wall":
It was Gavaskar
The real master
Just like a wall
We couldn't out Gavaskar at all
Not at all
You know the West Indies couldn't out Gavaskar at all.
A. E. Housman
Cricket features, albeit briefly, in late-Victorian poet A. E. Housman's most famous collection of somewhat gloomy poems A Shropshire Lad, published in 1896 and never out-of-print since then. Poem XVII reads:
Twice a week the winter thorough
Here stood I to keep the goal:
Football then was fighting sorrow
For the young man’s soul.
Now in Maytime to the wicket
Out I march with bat and pad:
See the son of grief at cricket
Trying to be glad.
Try I will; no harm in trying:
Wonder 'tis how little mirth
Keeps the bones of man from lying
On the bed of earth.
10cc "Dreadlock Holiday"
"Dreadlock Holiday" is probably the most well-known pop song to mention cricket. 10cc's hit single reached number 1 in the UK in 1978.[17] However, the song has only a tenuous connection with cricket, mentioning it in the chorus: "I don't like cricket, oh no, I love it".[18]
Moments and Thoughts, by John Snow (Kaye & Ward Ltd., 1973)
A Breathless Hush: The MCC Anthology of Cricket Verse, by Hubert Doggart and David Rayvern Allen (2004)
Come Shane, by Victoria Coverdale (Make Jam Press, 2006) ISBN0-9802963-0-7. A poetic tribute to Shane Warne from a female admirer and how her world changed when "that" ball was delivered.
A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864–2009, edited by Mark Pirie (Wellington, N.Z.: HeadworX Publishers). ISBN978-0-473-16872-8. First anthology of New Zealand cricket poems.
Cautionary Tales from the Pavilion: A Short Collection of Verse, by Giscard Drew (2014)
