Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio | The Poetry of Football
Bruce Meyer is the director of the creative writing program at the University of Toronto. He has taught at several Canadian universities and is the author of three collections of poetry. In the following essay, Meyer analyzes how Wright captures the “poetry” of the game of football in “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio.”
Ubiquitous in the American landscape, in every city and small town, is the football stadium. As one flies over the nation on an autumn night, the eye is immediately drawn to the rectangles of light, the football fields of local high schools and colleges. Football is to the American consciousness what chivalry was to the Middle Ages. It is both a male code of behavior and a social ritual. Like the runner who was the pride of his town in A. E. Housman’s “To An Athlete Dying Young,” football is a means by which towns are united behind their champions. The poetry is in the game and the...
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