Depiction of Time in Three Housman Poems Essay

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

as a part of the season which is known as spring; it can be assumed he means all life and all things are subject to the ravages of time. Mortality is all around us and with it the stages of all life and time pass. In terms of the opening lines, thought, youth and beauty are fleeting indeed.

Hirshfield writes this poem in second person to give life to the poem so that the poem speaks to the reader. The poem starts by accusing the reader of letting the redwood grow near the house. “It is foolish” (line 1) lets the reader know that nature should not be growing this close to your home. Hirshfield takes the liberty to talk straight to the reader through the speaker in telling them that it is nonsense to let nature be so close to a material object such as a house. The reader can visually see a “young redwood// grow next to a house” (line 2, 3). The tree starts to symbolize the beauty of nature growing against the materialistic world.

Not only do these poems share differences through the speakers childhood, but also through the tones of the works.

The diction in the excerpt is an essential component to the dramatization of the plot’s central incident. Jewett uses rich language to intensify the simple nature of the main character Sylvia’s journey up a “great pine-tree.” For example, in describing the tree, the narrator uses personification as he mentions the “huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight.” The use of personification harkens back to those universal moments in childhood in which everything alive had human feelings, and creates an emotional attachment between the reader and the tree. Jewett also uses other figurative language, like similes, to relate the grandeur of the tree to the audience. She writes, “It [the tree] was like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth…” In comparing the tree to the great mast of a ship, the author invokes feelings of awe at its size.

Although many may not believe it until it happens to them, time can pass by so swiftly that one won’t even register it at first. Yes, time passing is a part of life, but the realization of it is another story within itself. “Forgetfulness,” a poem by Billy Collins, and an excerpt from “Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White both provide a clear example of how fast time can go by. In Collin’s piece, he puts together many various ideas one can forget as their life moves incredibly fast. Likewise, in White’s “Once More to the Lake,” the narrator struggles to understand how quickly time really passed and how his son is so similaralike to him. Both of these pieces of writing use X syntax and X diction to develop the common theme of annihilated time.

Identity is a common theme in both poems that are discussed above. Although this is the case, the way that identity is conveyed is completely different. Poem 290 takes a playful tone whereas the tone of poem 409 is quieter, imposing,

“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.

With the language being written in a colloquial style, it illustrates a more true and realistic approach while underlining the speaker’s statement to the Pope in a much stronger way. The choice of using words that solely relate to the native culture such as “isistawina” (27) and “matotsan” (42) demonstrate the effort the speaker is publicly displaying to maintain and uphold her customs. The use of no capitalization can relate to the idea that the poem is written in a vernacular language, but also provides evidence that the speaker does not believe the she or her culture, is better than another. It is not her objective to prove her culture should become more dominant, but to provide awareness of the past history and the impact caused from it. Communicating and expressing the poem with the heavy dialect not only signifies the importance of the speaker’s culture, as well adds humour and a sense of satire as a result of the improper diction.

The comparison between the two poems is kinda similar. they both have to do with something religious and it both talks about god. in Huswifery the guy is a sinner who wants to be pure and a saint. He basically tells god to make him a robe of glory and to make him into all these parts of a spindle. and he just keeps telling god to do this for him. And in Sinners In The Hands Of a Angry God talks about the same thing almost. In this one it talks about the sermon calmly telling all the people that if they don't go to church they will all go to hell and be tortured. And he also said that the only thing between you and hell is the air. He tried to scare all the people by how calm and how he put images in there heads. About god's wrath and how there

Firstly, his story corresponds to the initial idea listed within the Byzantine poem. The poem is about aging and of how the

Both the poems have the theme of love, written from a man’s point of view, and explores the way men treat woman in relationships. The former does this by a male narrator writing a poem to a female, using imagery to entice her. The latter by using a duke, explaining the story of what happened to his previous wife whilst looking at her picture. Both the poems use imagery and other poetic devices but in different ways. The first uses them more often to impress her. The second uses them in a

Many people believe that this mimics Whitman's life. Living in a life of social separation much of the time, he still managed to succeed not only with his writing, but also in life itself. However, in line five Whitman goes on to say that he wonders how the tree could grow such joyous leaves while being alone. He himself says that he could not survive if put in the same situation. Whitman did however lead a joyous and happy life in many peoples opinion, even though he did not enjoy the social life many other had during his lifetime. His own opinion of himself not being lonely may be frayed in order to spare the image he proposes to the public in his writings. The next few lines are interesting because of the way they could possible spell out Whitman's life. In the poem, he breaks of a twig, wraps some moss around it, and takes it to he room and places it in plain view. This may parallel his life by way of his memory. The twig may represent pieces of his memory that were enjoyable to him. He then takes the twig and places it in his room signifying that he wants to be able to constantly see those fond memories. Again Whitman replies by saying he did not do this to remind him of his friends, but in reality he may have just said this to help keep a good report with his readers about his lifestyle.

Now, when it comes to technical similarities between the two poems (i.e. rhyme scheme and meter), there aren’t any, so instead of stating all they don’t have in common, we’ll just move straight on to the similarities in their subject matter. Of course, the most glaring similarity between the two is that they both feature a gloomy sailor

In the sixth stanza he hopes that his daughter will be a "flourishing hidden tree", which is not rebel but kind and happy, but contains her happiness within a particular place. And additionally he wants his daughter to be not argumentative and aggressive, or perhaps quite and secure, "rooted in one dear perpetual place." When combined with the previous line, the last line clearly defines his hope fro daughter to live in a victorious life