The Ball and The Club – Golf Poetry

THE BALL AND THE CLUB 

I SHOT a golf ball into the air ; 
It fell toward earth, I knew not where; 
For who hath eye so strong and keen, 
As to follow the flight of my ball to the green. 

I lost a club I could not spare. 
And searched for it most everywhere; 
For who hath sight so keen and quick 
As to trace the course of a missing stick. 

Long, long afterwards, in an oak, 

I found the golf ball still unbroke; 

And the club — with a couple of nicks and a bend, 

I found again in the bag of a friend. 

Forbes Lindsay, in Lyrics of the Links, 1921

This piece by Forbes Linsay is a rewriting of The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.