To An Athlete Dying Young Poem 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

The only alliteration that can be found in this poem is in verse 4 when Frost writes “favor fire.” In verses 1 and 2, he writes “some say” which can also be considered an alliteration. An assonance I think I’ve found is “I hold with those who favor” because of the repeating “o” in the words.

“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.

Another technique this poem takes use of is alliteration. The alliteration used helps to express the themes importance through repletion of sound devices. A specific example of alliteration

In this poem Execution written by Edward Hirsch tells a philosophical reflection expressed with sadness about a sicken high school football coach who is extremely passionate. The overview of this poem is centered around his favorite word execution. Execution is expressed in multiple ways in this poem. Life was about football for the coach, he would pour in his blood sweat and tears to the game. There was no that he received every inch of effort from his player. Countless hours of preparation, practice, and energy was devoted. You would think working this hard would bring upon serious exhaustion, but the coach was like an energizer bunny, he would keep going. Unfortunately this lifestyle caught up with him, the speaker says he developed cancer. I believe that he spent too much time on the game of football. Ultimately this is what lead to his illness, the neglection of his self for the game that he loved. Details from the poem will be used to argue my claim. These details are relevant to how the coach acted and his philosophies. The significance that we get out of my claim is thought provoking. The type of execution he was preaching to the team went into full effect in the form of cancer towards him.

“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.

Flick Webb possess hopes and dreams that unexpectedly vanished, and even now he still reminisces about the glory days. It is difficult to let go, and once still dwell on memories once had. Many athletes have that dream to become something great, some inherit a bright future; however, many do not. In John Updike’s poem “Ex Basketball Player,” Flick Webb was once that star basketball player, who didn’t inherit that bright future, as a consequence works at a mediocre job. In “Ex Basketball Player,” Updike utilizes imagery to dramatize conflict among Flick’s past success with his present failure.

Lastly, why do I agree with Housman that aging brings sadness to an athlete? Looking at Lines 16-20 of, “To an Athlete Dying Young,” we see Housman’s idea of a dying athlete. “Now you will not swell the rout of lads that wore their honors out, runners whom renown outran and the name died before the man.” This quote explains that once the athlete had many fans that adored him, but as time went by lost fans and became a normal person, not someone they looked up to. I agree with Housman on this poem with the fact of sports today. Sports today focus on the young, strong, and non-injured players to bring in wins not losses. As an athlete ages we see that their fan base is changed because those fans like the young athletes more now than they like the older athlete. Even with this happening in sports teams today, we have to see these athletes are still considerably young with ages in the thirties, forties, and fifties. That is young

The poem uses a vast amount of alliteration throughout it. The author is showing a pattern through their writing. He uses alliteration to give life to his words for a better understanding of what is happening.

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

At the very beginning on the poem in stanza one it starts off with "midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary" right off the bat Poe puts us right where he wants us with words like dreary, weary. Other alliterations include, "sucrease from sorrow, sorrow" which is used to exemplify his pain and his desire to bring it to an end. "Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal every dared to dream", one of my favorite examples of alliteration in this poem not only does it flow perfectly but forces the reader to read slowly; the emphasis of the d-sound and the words he uses brings about a manifestations of what dreams us mortals cant dream from or imagination. It engages not only our minds, but souls into what darkness the speaker may experience in his dreams. “For Freud, most symbolism was sexual, and he believed that dream imagery was rooted in our deepest emotional drives” that Poe makes us dig deep into our conscious with that all (Goodwyn

Death holds the influence over one’s life. No matter what they do, they cannot escape it. In Dylan Thomas’ poem, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Goodnight,” and A.E. Housman’s poem, “To an Athlete Dying Young,” both use literary devices describing the tragedy of death. Thomas and Housman both create characters that are dying, and the internal conflicts that people around them have.

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.

After my primary reading of the poem to an Athlete Dying Young I gathered it to be a melancholy poem about an athlete dying while in his prime. Nevertheless, after a secondary reading, I noticed something eccentric; that the author A.E. Houseman wanted to communicate his theme to be content with death, accept it, and even at times look forward to it. Houseman, I believe claims that it is better for an athlete to die in his prime and be forever memorialized for the athlete’s accomplishments. The reasoning for this is because the athlete or in this case the runner will outlive his accomplishments and they will be forgotten or replaced by the town in this poems case. To confirm this doctrine A.E Houseman writes

Section 1, Analyzing a Poem: To an Athlete Dying Young by A.E. Housman 1. Paraphrase it: After the athlete won the race, the townspeople (we) carried him home on their shoulders while a crowd stood by cheering. Today, the athlete is on the road to the cemetery in a coffin, which the townspeople carry and set down at the treshold of the tomb (and of eternity), where he will occupy a quiet town, the cemetery. The athlete was smart to die young before his glory had a chance to fade, as he grew older. The laurel, a symbol of victory, withers faster than the rose, a symbol of an average life span.