Sunday, August 17, 2008

Excerpt of Poem from Bull Durham

Here is an excerpt from a poem that was quoted near the end of the baseball movie Bull Duram:

"Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

I found it from the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray from the stanza:

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

The line from Bull Durham was when Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) hit a minor league record 247th home run to no notice by the baseball media.

I see that poem is also famous for the line:

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

I don't know that my brain is wired for poetry...

2 comments:

Thaddeus said...

awesome catch man! I was just wondering who wrote that. I feel bad because I've read that poem before, and Gray was really great.

To be honest, tho, I don't recognize the second quote at all. Where else have you seen it, aside from the poem?

David Etherton said...

I recognize the excerpt of "far from the madding crowd," but admit that I never really understood the reference. I may be too left brain leaning...