to an athlete dying young

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

Death is a topic that unites all of humanity. While it can be uncomfortable to think about, confronting death in unavoidable. “Dying” addresses that discomfort and universal unwillingness to consider the inevitability of death. Pinsky’s use of imagery, symbolism, and tone create a poetic experience that is like death, something every reader can relate to. In “Dying,” Pinsky describes how people are oblivious and almost uncaring when it comes to the thought of death. Pinsky is trying to convince the reader that they shouldn’t ignore the concept of death because life is shorter than it seems.

“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.

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.

"Out, Out," by Robert Frost is a gruesomely graphic and emotional poem about the tragic end of a young boy's life. It is a powerful expression about the fragility of life and the fact that death can come at any time. Death is always devastating, but it is even more so when the victim is just a young boy. The fact that the boy's death came right before he could " Call it a day" (750) leads one to think the tragedy might have been avoided and there by forces the reader to think, "What if." This poem brings the question of mortality to the reader's attention and shows that death has no age limit.

By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.

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.

William James, an American philosopher and psychologist once said “believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” Life, regardless of how close it lies to death, is worth keeping. The poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, by Dylan Thomas is a son’s appeal to a fading father. He shows his father that men from all walks of life confront death, however, they still war against it. Thomas uses figurative language to classify men into four different categories to persuade his father to realize that a life, regardless of how it was lived, should be fought for.

In the play “everyman” death is depicted as something that is terribly feared as no one seemed ready for it, death is perceived as something that takes one away from the pleasures of this world.

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 literary masterpiece, “To an Athlete Dying Young,” uses figurative language, sound devices, and structure to illustrate a poem

Death is a familiar thing to most of us, whether you’ve had a loved one pass or have seen a lot of pain. The reason I picked this topic is because of all the ways and things that can happen, in our lifetime, what is the most scariest thing people have trouble with and death popped into my head. I asked the question, ‘Are you afraid of dying?’ My belief was that the youth would be less likely to be fearful of dying compared to the older populations I interview and researched. I believed that the youth would see it as a long time away and would be more focused with living rather than focusing on something they can’t control. I believe that the elderly would have a bigger problem with death because of all the problems that come with old age. As you age everything becomes closer and is more realistic.

In today?s modern society we have a certain distaste for the subject of death. There are people in society feel uncomfortable with the subject of death. The subject of death is a reality that we need to face everyday. There is nothing any of us can do about

Many people have both feared and questioned death throughout the ages but when it’s time to die, two kinds of people emerge: those who accept it and wait to die, and those who keep fighting. Dylan Thomas describe the importance of continuing to fight in his poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, which he wrote for his dying father. Firstly, there is lots of symbolism in the poem, which helps to develop the theme of never giving up. Secondly, the author uses many literary devices, which help to develop the main theme of the text, which is to never stop fighting. Lastly, there is lots of imagery used to help develop the theme of persevering until the end even more. Death is all around us but it is important to persevere and keep fighting