To An Athlete Dying Young

The poem tells the story of the life of the former high school basketball standout, Flick Webb and his fall from grace and fame. The speaker takes us on a journey through Flick’s life, beginning with the main street in town, developing to Flick’s fall from fame to his lowly job, and then ends by telling us of his menial daily habits. He was once the best basketball player in his area. However, he has since his fall from grace he is now just a lowly gas attendant who checks oil, and changes flat tires for a living.

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.

To an Athlete Dying Young is about an athlete who passes away at a young age. In the beginning it is very upbeat and positive, the speaker is reminiscing on an athlete who won an important race and was carried through town as a way to celebrate. However, this feeling doesn’t last long as the second stanza places the reader at said athletes own funeral. The poem continues on talking about how it was actually fortunate for the athlete to die young, nevertheless it is hard for anyone to think that someone so young loosing their life could

He knows that his time is coming soon but Tennyson does not want anyone to be sad because he is going to see his “pilot face to face (15).” Death gives him a chance to traverse through the threshold of life and into the afterlife. Tennyson does not think that death is the end, but a beginning because his spirit will live on with god. He wants death to free him from his hollow shell of a body. He sees death as a way to reach god and conveys the message that people should not fear death. Tennyson’s view of death is similar to that of Houseman’s because they both feel that death is not something to mourn over. Houseman believes that since the athlete dies very young, he will forever be remembered by people for what he accomplished. Tennyson believes in death in which he tells people to be glad that death has given him a chance to see god.

Without doubt, poetry is the most diverse, flexible and philosophically profound branch of creative writing; in fact, this is especially true about modern poetry. Alehouse, an independent literary journal, represents a remarkable example of the modern poetic liberation, providing a collection of short poems exploring different subjects and forms. As most poetry, the Alehouse poems have no plot, no immediate subject; nor do they allow one clear and simple interpretation. Although a poem’s ultimate, profound meaning is deeply impacted by its author’s personal journey, there is one theme that can be found in most – death. The perception of death is metaphorically represented in many modern poems.

This effectively shows the turning point in the poem from glory to death and fading of glory. Personification

Mortality is at the forefront of the poems ‘To and Athlete Dying Young,’ ‘Design,’ ‘My Papa’s Waltz,’ and the short story ‘The Lottery.’ However, each of these works of art differ on the connotation of death but all convey their own unique views in the same narrative way. All of the poems have the same point of view in which their stories are told in but the short story, ‘The Lottery,’ stands alone as a story that is not told in the first person. The title of each work holds no deeper meaning than a description of what is to follow with the exception of ‘Design.’ Finally, each author structured their own work in some ways that are similar to one and another, for example, the use of such devices as rhyme schemes can be found in all three of

The 17th-century poet Angelus Silesius once wrote, “How fleeting is this world yet it survives. It is ourselves that fade from it and our ephemeral lives.” This realization that human life is ephemeral and insignificant as compared to nature is a prevalent theme throughout poetry, for poets often worry that they will never achieve recognition or will inevitably fade from society’s memory with time and hope to immortalize themselves through written language. Shakespeare himself once wrote about the power of the “eternal lines to time” that allows the beauty of his mistress to live on long past her death

The poem “To an dying young athlete” has a cheerful beginning where everything seems all well until it goes a little further into the poem. It suddenly turns dark and twisted telling the reader that they are carrying the athlete on their shoulders but not in glee or cheer, but in sorrow because the athlete has died young. There carrying him in a coffin so that they can bury him, it then goes into detail on how people used to nearly worship him for he was a town poster boy he was the star athlete that everyone had come to love. Now he is in a coffin on the way to the grave, the streets that he is being carried on used to be filled with cheering townsfolk who’d go to the game and had seen his race they've loved this kid and now there quiet, there

Housman’s view of death contrasts from that of Thomas because Housman accepts that dying young can be something positive. In A.E. Housman’s poem, To an Athlete Dying Young, he writes, “Smart lad, to slip betimes away … ” Here, Housman is saying that the athlete who died was smart to do so. Glory is something that fades quickly, especially in running. People can achieve great things in athletics, and they will become a household name, until the next great athlete comes along and does something even greater. Housman is saying that by going out young, he is going out on top, and he cannot become another Mark Spitz, someone who’s former glory withered away into his dental practice. Another great point Housman makes is that, “Eyes the shady night

Poetic form used correctly can be an effective tool for giving the reader the desired feel or impression of a piece. Poet’s e. e. cummings, John Dryden, Dudley Randall and Dylan Tomas all effectively discuss the topic of death. Even though these poets use different forms and treatments to discuss this topic, some congruity between their pieces exists. The different forms used by these authors are open, neoclassic couplet, ballad, and villanelle. e. e. cummings uses the open form in “Buffalo Bill’s Defunct.”

Death is quite scary thought isn’t it? After all, it is a subject many people don’t like to talk about. We all fear death in some ways, such as losing a loved one, not knowing if they're still happy and even not knowing what might come after death. Regardless of how we all feel on such a sad matter, it is truly inevitable and we must all accept it. If we begin to look at death in a more beautiful way and not so sinister, we can have a better understanding. In the two poems, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson’s and “To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman while the theme differs, they are much alike in some ways.

Alfred Lord Tennyson was one of the most prolific poets throughout the whole Victorian era. A.E Housman is one of the most significant poets from the Modern era. Both of these magnificent authors lived distinct lives. Housman wrote “To an Athlete Dying Young” and Tennyson wrote “Break, Break, Break.” Both of these poems deal with the tragedy of death in different perspectives.

There is a difference between dying an honorable and noble death and simply dying. It is the gap between trying and giving up and it is the sense of the unbearable pleasure that comes along with success. In Norman Mailer’s “The Death of Benny Paret”, the author witnesses a first-hand account of the tragic death of the boxer, Paret. Through many rhetorical devices, Mailer is able to have an effect on his audience, allowing them to feel the same horror.

Written in 1896, the theme in the poem “Loveliest of Trees” by A. E. Housman was derived from the late 1890s and continued to be famous throughout World War I. Alfred Edward Housman, or A. E. Housman, is know as a poet that has created poems with a simple Romantic pessimism style. As a whole the tragic poem talks about death and the short time that it is lived in this world. “While "Loveliest of Trees" isn't really Housman's most tragic poem, it's still a poem about death” (Shmoop Editorial Team). During the late 1890s two of the deadliest wars were taking place. The Second Boer War between Britain and South Africa and World War I between the Allies and the Central Powers. Since many young men were dying during both of these battles A. E. Housman was able to write a poem with the theme of death. Due to the theme being about death, the poem became a very hot topic due to the people experiencing many deaths of young men during both of these wars. The poem was able to let the populace reflect how life is short and there is not enough time left before each one of us.