Analysis Of The Poem ' An Athlete Dying Young '

The poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A. E. Housman depicts the funeral of a young champion runner, who has died at the peak of his youth and athletic career. The poem makes note of the sorrow of a young life being cut short, but also glorifies the death of the athlete for capturing the young runner in the prime of his life. Housman’s poem was written in the form of the classical lyric poem, which could be influenced by Housman’s early tutoring in Greek and Latin lyric poetry (Holzberger 4). The poem also makes use of a four-line ballad stanza, which Housman forms into an elegy for the young runner as he reflects on the runner’s death (Holzberger 7). The use of symbols throughout the poem such as the

The poem “To This Day” written by Shane Koyczan, the symbolism is the black things grabbing the kid. This is showing that words do hurt and it stays with you this is shown through the whole story of the pain and suffering of the kid. This is said " who used to say that rhyme sticks and stones as if broken bones hurt more than the names we got called" this is showing word do hurt and the black things grabbing him is showing that like a broken bone it still hurts over time just like words do. With this evidence it shows that if you don't want to be called that don't say it at all.

Death is a topic that unites all of humanity. While it can be uncomfortable to think about, confronting death in unavoidable. “Dying” addresses that discomfort and universal unwillingness to consider the inevitability of death. Pinsky’s use of imagery, symbolism, and tone create a poetic experience that is like death, something every reader can relate to. In “Dying,” Pinsky describes how people are oblivious and almost uncaring when it comes to the thought of death. Pinsky is trying to convince the reader that they shouldn’t ignore the concept of death because life is shorter than it seems.

“Smart lad, to slip betimes away. From fields where glory does not stay.” These are lines from a poem To an Athlete Dying Young by A. E. Housman. Mr. Donnelly read parts of this poem in Mike Costello’s memorial ceremony. In the novel Tangerine, by Edward Bloor. This book is about the main character, Paul and his family moving to Tangerine, Florida. There, Paul and his new friends try to find out the truth about Paul's eyesight and the truth about his brother, Erik. In the novel Tangerine, the author, Edward Bloor, interestingly uses figurative language and flashback to uncover the theme of this story: the value of the truth.

“Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters.” A.E. Housman grew up in a small town in Worcestershire, London. His childhood ended at the age of twelfth because his mother passed away. Then he went to this University where he fell into a dark love and made him depressed. He worked really hard and got a job as a professor at the University College in London. Although he does all of his teaching and helping scholars he is most known for his poetry. His poems display deep feelings and are emotionless. His poems usually affected the reader like a shiver down the spine or a punch in the stomach. I am going to be talking about three messages from the poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman.

In the third stanza, the diction of “heaven” and “noble” allows the speaker to craft an image of an almost godlike juggler. This view of the juggler creates the tone of amazement and ardent which breaks through the previous gloomy description of the earth in the first stanza which “falls/ So in our hearts from brilliance” (lines 3-4). This reveals that the world the juggler has made, unlike the earth which the speaker doesn’t appear to have fond feelings of, is a joyful and light-hearted place that the speaker is easily captivated by. As the juggler “reels that heaven in” (line 16), creates an atmosphere of an almost unearthly experience. This description of the juggler as a master of spiritual elements allows readers to view how the speaker's attitude is uplifted and enlightened.

The poems “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas and “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A. E. Housman both discuss how each author views death. But, both poems have drastically different opinions upon the matter. Thomas in “Do Not Go Gentle” is full despair and hatred towards death, and is tries to convince his father not to accept death. Whereas, Housman in “To an Athlete” expresses that a young death is beautiful and glorious. That a young death shouldn’t be just seen as sad, but more as honorable.

The second stanza describes the balls being thrown into the air. The concept of the juggler and his five red balls “shaking up our gravity” is introduced here as the narrator details how the ball goes up, saying, “Whee, in the air the balls roll around, wheel on his wheeling hands.” (Line 7 and 8). The use of the word “whee” reveals the tone of stanza

The strength less dead are the athletes whose “name died before the man”(20). Housman emphasizes through the imagery that it is better to do while one is still remembered since the glory will stay with him and not fade away. “To An Athlete Dying Young” glorifies the athlete through the use of imagery while “Ex-Basketball Player” uses it to emphasize the athlete’s fading glory.

Flick Webb possess hopes and dreams that unexpectedly vanished, and even now he still reminisces about the glory days. It is difficult to let go, and once still dwell on memories once had. Many athletes have that dream to become something great, some inherit a bright future; however, many do not. In John Updike’s poem “Ex Basketball Player,” Flick Webb was once that star basketball player, who didn’t inherit that bright future, as a consequence works at a mediocre job. In “Ex Basketball Player,” Updike utilizes imagery to dramatize conflict among Flick’s past success with his present failure.

In his poem “To an Athlete Dying Young”, A.E. Housman makes a quite different approach on death. People have different perspectives on death, but more often than not, it is viewed as an undesirable event that people wish to avoid. The speaker in the poem, however, praises a young and famous athlete for dying before he became old and forgotten. This can be interpreted two very different ways. One can assume Housman believes that the only way for athletes to capture the glory is to die when at the peak of their careers. One might criticize him for having such a pessimistic view of life, but we must realize that we are among many people who give those athletes the feeling of disgrace as they are no

It’s nice to be on top for awhile but eventually a downfall just like Flick Webb went from a superstar of a basketball player and one of the best to a gas station attendant of changing gas,oil, and tires it just shows how you can be a big thing then become small. Ex-basketball player by John Updike is a poem about a life lesson to athletes and people who are a big thing in highschool and how you can become nothing people take advantage of things and being on top is something you can't take advantage of .

A.E. Housman was a poet born in 1859 who became very successful during his lifetime. “To an Athlete Dying Young” represents the theme of glory is fleeting by illustrating the point that if a successful athlete dies young, they will not have to worry about their glory of victory fading. They can rest in peace knowing they will be remembered at their athletic peak when they were successful and victorious. They will not have to go through the pain of watching their fame disappear or whither out with time. In this poetic masterpiece, Housman pulls together figurative language, sound devices, and structure to illustrate that glory is fleeting through a

In this poem, the author writes a letter to a young athlete. He explains, that when you are in high school and breaking records and making history it is an incredible achievement. Although, when eventually you are also going to be beaten out, and someone new will take your record. Then the question arose, “Is it best to die young, once you’ve broken records, so that you don’t have to witness your hard work to also vanish from someone else?” Throughout my high school career, I have broken the record of all-time scoring in women’s basketball at WHS. It is a huge honor, and I am blessed to hold that title. I believe that even though, one day someone will break my record, I would still want to be around to witness such. I know what I did, what I accomplished, and I still hold all the memories of those four years of high school basketball, so watching someone also succeed and take on that honor after me would be amazing. I wouldn’t want to miss out on watching another young athlete succeed. Obviously, another significant text that we read second semester would be Alfred Edward Housman’s poem To An Athlete Dying

Many people have both feared and questioned death throughout the ages but when it’s time to die, two kinds of people emerge: those who accept it and wait to die, and those who keep fighting. Dylan Thomas describe the importance of continuing to fight in his poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, which he wrote for his dying father. Firstly, there is lots of symbolism in the poem, which helps to develop the theme of never giving up. Secondly, the author uses many literary devices, which help to develop the main theme of the text, which is to never stop fighting. Lastly, there is lots of imagery used to help develop the theme of persevering until the end even more. Death is all around us but it is important to persevere and keep fighting