The Death Of An Athlete Dying Young By. Housman

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

“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.

a "yellow wood" (1) when "two roads diverged" (1), that he had to make a

In contrast to the imagery used by Housman, Updike stresses the athlete’s fading glory as the athlete has lived past his triumphant days. As “To An Athlete Dying Young” begins the poem through the imagery that shows the athlete’s success and his gain of honor, whereas “Ex-Basketball Player” indicates that the athlete’s life is no longer filled with glory. The road leading to the place where he works shares with the readers how meaningless and empty the athlete’s life has become as the road “runs past the high-school lot, bends with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut off” (2). Flick, the subject of the poem, has had his years of glory when he played for his high school since he had the skills and talent to break records. He had extra talent that made him become one with the basketball and handle it like no one else could as “his hands were like wild birds” (18). Although Flick had his glorious years, unlike the athlete in “To An Athlete Dying Young” Flick’s glory does not last because he now “checks oil, and changes flats” (20). “To An Athlete Dying Young” emphasizes that it is better

In the second stanza the athlete is now deceased. He is being taken to the grave were the athlete shall be buried. Still the young athlete is carried “shoulder-high” (line 6) representing that he is still on top. When my team lost in the regional finals my heart dropped, I went from being the happiest I had ever been to having my shirt over my face covering the pain in each tear. This champion died while he was the happiest he had ever been. The runner had no regrets or sorrow. He died before he could face the downfall. A.E. Housman in this poem believes that the smartest move this champion could have made was to die when he did, because the young athlete will never be forgotten as a champion. He will live on as an eternal champion.

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 main theme of the poem however, is the sadness and misfortune that accompany us on our journey through life. The Wilson River Road, in which the events of the poem take place, is symbolic of the road of life that we all travel upon. The darkness and the setting of the poem point to the seclusion and indecision that we experience when dealing with life’s tragedies. Many people feel as confused as the narrator does when he was “stumbling back of the car” (5, 911) in his attempt to do the right thing. In his moment of decision, though, the only company the narrator had was the silent and unheeding world around him.

Competitive, this is the imagery that this poem is creating and the reason why the author did this is to show us how competitive this swimmer is. This swimmer is in a race and he wants to win, the author shows us that the swimmer was well trained and ready for this. The author uses many imagery in his poem and it lets us picture in our head what is going on. When you read the poem you picture everything, nothing is a blur and you know what exactly is going on in this poem. To me it was like watching the whole thing in my head while I was reading it, without the imagery the author put in I would understand a thing about what was going on. “He flips, converts, and is gone all in one. We watch him for signs. His arms are steady at the catch, his cadent feet tick in the stretch, they know the lesson well.” In these two sentences you can picture what is going on, and in these two sentences the author shows us again how good of technique this swimmer

The poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman is not just about the death of an athlete, but remembering the great accomplishments of the person after they are gone. This poem is a symbolic poem and is for the people to know that it is sad when a child passes, his name will still live on in all that is done throughout the small town in which he resided. The author uses the young athlete as a symbol of the fame and fortune that the town will receive after his passing.

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

A.E. Houseman described the thoughts and voices that pass through an Olympian’s mind while competing in the Olympics in the poem “To an Athlete Dying Young.” This phenomenal piece of poetry is not only moving, but it is touching to the reader's mind. Upon reading the poem, the reader will discover that “To an Athlete Dying Young” truly defines all of the thoughts that go through an athlete’s mind. A.E. Houseman used many poetic devices that provide another thrill to the writing. In the fascinating poem about an athlete, alliteration, repetition, and hyperbole is used numerous times throughout the poem.

Third, there is no greater feeling than the rush you get when there is ten seconds left on the clock and your team has the ball on the 40-yard line in a field goal formation. The kick goes up soars high and far building anticipation. The ball goes in and you win the game jumping up and down and screaming loud. My friends and I are dancing and high-fiving in excitement. I associate myself as a team member that does not get paid. When I speak about my team I use phrases like “us” and “we” as if I’m a player on the team. While watching the games I experience feelings I do not feel on a day to day basis. I feel anticipation, let downs, and great achievement all in four hours.

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

It is known for a fact that the clutches of death are inescapable and permanent, however death may sometimes fall short when it comes to the life of an idea or memory as these can live on forever. In A. E. Housman’s poem “To an Athlete Dying Young”, it is the memory of a brilliant athlete that will be lauded for many generations to come. A. E. Housman achieves the somber and reverent memory of the young athlete, who had met their untimely demise, by the use of strong characterization, poetic devices, and themes.

Even at its time of conception, the American culture thrived off of games and sports. Nowadays, it is even possible to get through college by just throwing a ball around. Of course; however, it isn’t that simple. But, is it really okay for a student to be able to get themselves through college because of their ability to play sports and not their academic skills? In an essay in the book America Now: Short Readings from Recent Periodicals titled “The Student Athlete” by Red Smith; is a story about said student. Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith, who hailed from Green Bay, Wisconsin, studied journalism at Notre Dame to later pursue a career in sports writing. This one piece in particular focuses on a student that wrote an essay to one of his professors regarding why his teammate took the place of first string when he was better at passing than the starting quarterback. The essay was borderline illegible -- the grammar being something expected of an elementary student. Things like repeated or unnecessarily omitted words would appear, a severe lack and overall misuse of punctuation, and a slew of other fatal grammatical errors plagued his paper. So then arises the question: “should we be allowing students to progress through