To An Athlete Dying Young Analysis

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

In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.

“To an Athlete Dying Young”, by A.E. Housman, is a thought provoking elegy. The poem is about the early demise of an accomplished runner. Surely, it is sad when someone dies too soon especially when there is so much to look forward to. One may ask, “Is there an advantage of dying young?” Well, there is! In this poem, Housman shows the silver lining to dying young during the height of one’s success.

Robert Frost and William Shakespeare have been celebrated by many people because of their ability to express themselves through the written word. Here we are years after their deaths analyzing these fascinating poems about life and death. It’s clear they had similar thoughts about this subject at the time of these writings, even though their characters could not have been more opposite. For both poets, life is too

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

In Edward Hirsch's poem Execution, the All-American sport of football is used to illustrate how a man's beloved high school football coach is matched up with his greatest opponent yet, something that play books and trick plays cannot defeat, cancer.

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.

In “To An Athlete Dying Young,” Housman refers to “the rout / of lads that wore their honors out.” A rout is a

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

Mortality is the state of being subject to death. For centuries, authors have been pondering the answer to the question why does someone have to die and could they escape death. In Colette Inez’s poem, “Back When All Was Continuous Chuckles”, the speaker and Doris have a very humorous view on death before a tragic event occurs that enlightens the pair to reality. The poem, “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, is about a group of pool players that describes their actions which will lead to severe suspected consequences. In the poems, “Back When All Was Continuous Chuckles” by Colette Inez and “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, reflects a theme of mortality based on the shifting tone, the poems’ diction, and the child-like speaker.

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

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

Poetry is an art form that has often been highly regarded. It brings together some of the most complex forms of writing in the English language. Two poems that focus on the same topic may sometimes, have completely different views and provide perspectives that may not have been considered by the other. Two of these Poems are Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death by Roger McGough and On Death by Anne Killigrew. The former poem by Roger McGough talks of how the speaker does not wish to die the peaceful death of an elderly person but rather the chaotic death of a young man. In death is nothing at all the speaker proposes that all should be as happy as before his death, and not view it in such a negative and secretive light.