Athlete Dying Young

This enhances the mood of courage and fearlessness of the players and of anticipation in light of the upcoming polo match. Members of both polo teams show fortitude and resilience through their willingness to continue playing after having had pain bestowed upon them and witnessing the atrocities of the polo match. By fighting through adversities and sacrificing themselves for the betterment of their teammates, the players display the values of Australian identity. Paterson used a variety of language features, including metaphor and personification, to enhance the mood of the poem. For example, the metaphor ‘They were demons, were the members of the Geebung Polo Club’ enhances the mood of bravado leading up to the polo match. Paterson’s use of personification in the line, ‘Now my readers can imagine how the contest ebbed and flowed’ not only heightens the mood of excitement, but also engages the

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 tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.

In the middle of the poem, the speaker arrives at the number of casualties from the war. When he reads this number he can’t believe that he is still alive. As he reads down the names he uses the visual imagery and simile to describe how he expected to find his own name in “letters like smoke” (line 16). This helps the reader understand how lucky the speaker felt about somehow escaping the war still alive. As he goes

A.E. Housman first message from the poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” is which is better, to die at a young age when you’re still famous or dying old when everyone has forgotten you. This is a tough question because to athletes being remembered means a lot to them. Obviously they want to live a full life and experience everything they can but they also want to be remembered by their accomplishments at a young age. “Smart lad, to slip betimes away” (line 9) explains Housman opinion on this message. In the poem a young athlete who was a town 's hero died suddenly and Housman is saying that he is smart for dying at a young age. Saying that the fame is going to die before the man, so he will never have to experience about being forgotten when he got older. Saying that

By contrasting a player’s ardent exuberance for basketball with his xxx disappointment in the poem “American Hero,” Essex Hemphill reveals the athlete’s conflict between his enthusiasm for the game and his resentment toward his superficial fans. For instance, the author emphasizes the player’s fervent frame of mind, “[having] nothing to lose... / I let the tension go. / Shoot for the net. / I slam it through...” (Hemphill 1, 8-9, 11-12). Hemphill illustrates the competitor’s energetic passion for basketball by describing his game-winning skills and slick athleticism. In contrast, the poet depicts the player’s resentfulness toward the cheering mass as he muses “I scored / thirty-two points this game / and they love me for it” (13-15). Despite

The second poem is “Bradman’s last Innings”; it is a little momentum to the great Sir Donald Bradman and his effect on Australian life. It is about how Bradman was more than just a cricket great, but also a light in people’s lives, that relieved the pain of war and anguish. He symbolised the gentleman in us all, the fair player, and the great Australian icon.

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 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.

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

The first stanza is addressed to ‘old men’ and how they should not simply slip away and die quietly, they should fight death until the end. Poetic techniques

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

The poem is introduced with a man mourning over his recently dead wife, Lenore. He is in his home grieving. The man appears to be in a lonely and sad but seems to be comforted by reading his folktale. As the poem proceeds, the reader is not really sure whether the man is seeing things, or being visited by his wife Lenore in another

This is significant because it emphasizes the melancholy and mournfulness that he depicts with imagery in the first stanza. Later on in the second stanza, he author describes the tree the narrator would have planted as a “green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs”. The author uses visual color imagery of the color green to describe the sapling in order to emphasize just how young the newborn was when he died. Later on in the poem, the narrator speaks of himself and his brothers kneeling in front of the newly plated tree. The fact that they are kneeling represents respect for the deceased. When the narrator mentions that the weather is cold it is a reference back to the first stanza when he says “of an old year coming to an end”. Later on in the third stanza the author writes “all that remains above earth of a first born son” which means that the deceased child has been buried. They also compare the child to the size of “a few stray atoms” to emphasize that he was an infant. All of these symbols and comparisons to are significant because they are tied to the central assertion of remembrance and honoring of the dead with the family and rebirth.

“He’s lost his color far from here”. This line gives the reader a true image of how horrific military wounds could be. The irony that the soldier of the poem “liked a blood smear down his leg” then becomes rather depressing for the reader. This irony also suggests to the reader how foolish the subject is, due to his want of a “blood smear” and then, ironically he obtains “a leap of purple spurted from his thigh”. As well as graphical contrasts, there are also cases of contrasts between atmospheres before and after the war. It is shown that pre war, majority of the community was more joyful; “voices of play and pleasure.” Now however, it seems to be solemn as seen in “Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn.” This line symbolizes a disheartening atmosphere and also has connotations of a funeral which, once again, proves the horrors of war portrayed by Wilfred