Category: To An Athlete Dying Young

Fame is not a new concept. Due to the ever-present social media, reality TV shows, and the general public’s ability to reach out and touch the 1% through Instagram and Twitter, the world now a day runs on fame. Sadly, fame has also seeped into politics. Often times, today’s elections tend to be decided less on the issues and more on which candidate is more popular. Additionally, many seek fame and believe that it is only a good thing; however, fame is quickly fleeting. Critics come in and set up camp and wait until famous people slip, or they wait for the next One-Hit Wonder to hit the charts. Logan Paul and his video about Japan’s suicide forest was a huge slip up. His fame was not only gone, but he then became infamous. A. E. Housman’s poem, “To an Athlete Dying Young” addresses fame. The poem’s speaker claims that possibly it is better to die young in order to be remembered forever at the height of fame. The speaker delivers a perhaps controversial stance in the form of metaphor, imagery, and symbolism.

The poem’s speaker begins recounting a time when an athlete won a race and was brought back into town and chaired through the market-place shoulder high. This could represent a sort of crowd- surfing perhaps, with the athlete maybe perched on someone’s shoulders and the town gathering to cheer him home. In the next stanza the speaker snaps back to the present and says that in the present, they carry the athlete shoulder high and “set him at his threshold down, townsman of a stiller town.” This is indicative of death, with pallbearers holding the casket, carrying him through town shoulder high, and finally setting him down in at the threshold of his new home: a cemetery. The metaphorical victory that the speaker projects by juxtaposing two different events in the athlete’s life shows that as he first won a race, he also won his fame. As he is carried home a second time, he preserves his fame, sealing it forever in the ground. The speaker does not think that getting in the limelight is the lucky part. He thinks instead that staying in the limelight is where the luck is. By dying famous, one does not have time to lose his fame to age or to other people slandering his name. The speaker represents this through this metaphorical parade through the town on the athlete’s way to his grave.

The image of fame is important as well, and the speaker does an excellent job of pointing out what fame looks like, and how to preserve it. The speaker gives an image of a winner in the third stanza: “And early though the laurel grows, it withers quicker than the rose”. The laurel if donned early will not last long. The fame will be forgotten. Just as a rose ages and withers, so does the athlete, with his body and mind, and along with that, his accomplishments. However, another solution is provided in the final stanza: “And round that early-laurelled head will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, and find unwithered on its curls the garland briefer than a girl’s”. The image of an athlete with a laurel wreath as a crown that never will wither like a young girl’s flower tiara shows readers the longevity of fame as preserved through death. Just like fame, death is revealed as well. In the fourth stanza the speaker uses alliteration to create a picture, “and silence sounds no worse than cheers after earth has stopped the ears”. The image of dirt filling a grave is very present in this line and argues again that an early death is better than a prolonged life where one can get old and decrepit and lose his fame. The imagery, in tandem with both metaphor as well as symbolism, shows the keeping of fame due to death may not be particularly sad.

Symbols help tie everything together. A metaphor in the sixth stanza is used well, but the symbolism in the metaphor hits it home. “The fleet foot on the sill of shade”, shows the athlete stepping foot through the metaphorical doorway or window sill of death. Imagery and metaphor are present in this line, but the symbols help drive the meaning home. A sill of shade is similar to the base of a doorframe or windowframe. The athlete, by putting his fleeting foot on the base of the threshold is deciding to move forward. To open, and go through a door or the window. This is very symbolic, as one must step over the threshold of a door in order to pass through to the other side. Often times, life and opportunities are represented as series of doors. It is heard all the time, “Don’t close any doors just yet; just look at the options.” But by setting foot through the door and crossing the sill, the threshold, that is a decision that has been made to pass through and move forward.

The poem “To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman, is an overall melancholy poem that expresses the notion that a premature death can be beneficial to successful athletes. The speaker utilizes a rhyme scheme, tone and symbolism to imply that it is better to die in one’s heyday rather than to live to a ripe old age just to see all their achievements diminish and become inconsequential to everybody.

Housman utilizes a simple AABB rhyme scheme throughout the poem. For example in stanza one, the lines one and two end with “…race” and “…place” while lines three and four end with “…by” and “…high”. By providing this easy to recognize rhyme scheme, the reader can quickly identify it and know what to expect from the poem form wise. This presents the reader with the sense of certainty because they know that every two consecutive lines will have a rhyme. It also serves to give comfort to the reader by giving them this certainty because the topic of death is an unpleasant thing to think about due the uncertainty of it. The runner had died unexpectedly at a young age. Life is uncertain. One does not know when or how they will die. No one knows if they will be remembered after they have passed or if anybody would care. The form reflects our desire to have certainty in such an uncertain world.

Housman uses a tone shift from stanza one to stanza two. In stanza one, there is a joyous, nostalgic tone as an athlete is being celebrated when the townspeople “chaired the runner through the market-place”. Stanza two starts with “To-day, the road all runners come”, meaning the runner has gone to meet his maker. The runner is once again being carried on the shoulders of the townspeople, but this time the runner is in a casket being carried to his grave. Not only does the situation shift between the stanzas one and two, but also the tone. The tone shifted from jubilant to melancholy. This shift occurred so that the speaker could go on to make his point about how glory can only be attained perpetually by dying after achieving it.

The laurel wreath is a prominent symbol in “To An Athlete Dying Young.” A laurel wreath is usually placed on the heads of victorious athletes back in ancient Greece and it is an important symbol of triumph in this poem. By asserting in the third stanza that the laurel grows early, the speaker suggests that the peak of a runner’s success is achieved when they are in their youth. However, once picked, the laurel “withers quicker than the rose”. This symbolizes how brief fame and glory is after achieving it. But because the runner died at a young age, his glory and fame will remain intact, and the laurel will remain ‘unwithered on the runner’s curls’.

“To An Athlete Dying Young” provides a strong theme that dying at the peak of one’s achievements allow their greatness to live on through the memories of their admirers. The early deaths of people like Bruce Lee, Tupac, Aaliyah, and Steve Irwin all seem to support the validity of Housman’s perception of glory. Because they lost their lives when they were still considerably young, death gave them everlasting life in the minds of their fans and they are still being honored and celebrated today.

“To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman is a powerful poem that communicates that an athlete has died a winner and the author displays death in a positive light. The writer A.E. Housman shows a fondness for this athlete. This man doesn’t die a bad death according to the author but he dies a legend by winning a race for his town. The author is trying to show the reader how the athlete dying young may be a good thing because fame and glory begins to fade when you are alive but once a person dies they are much more appreciated and the man dies after taking a big win which results in the town viewing him as a legend.

In this poem diction and imagery are used to display the man’s achievement before his death. The words “chaired”, “shoulder-high”, “glory”, “cheers”, “challenge-cup”, and “garland” communicate how this man accomplished the goal of winning the race for his town. He died achieving something great; he died with honor and with a whole town celebrating him. Diction such as “away”, “does not stay”, “shut”, “strengthless dead” all emphasize the athletes death. The writer states, “Smart lad, to slip betimes way” which expresses that this death wasn’t seen as a tragedy but an accomplishment. The imagery displays both victory and death. The man being carried by a crowd home show heroic imagery. Stanza two makes a huge shift because the crowd is no longer celebrating but instead athlete is being carried to the graveyard by mourning family and friends which also displays an image to the reader. The imagery in this poem does not depend on figurative language in the beginning of the poem but as the poem goes on it does depend on figurative language.

Figurative language is displayed in this poem by the literary devices personification and apostrophe. In line 20, Personification is used when the author states, “And the name died before the man” implying a name could die and in line 13 the author states, “Eyes the shady night has shut” implying that a shady night can shut eyes. In line 16, the author states, “After earth has stopped the ear” implying the earth can stop an ear. Apostrophe is used because the author is speaking about someone is is absent, the athlete is dead. The author uses syntax of going back and forth between speaking about victory and death. The poem consists of complete sentences because we can see each idea is finished before the next line begins. Verbs are more prevalent in this poem. The poem uses caesura to make pauses between lines.

The tone of the poem, “To An Athlete Dying Young” is reminiscent, melancholy, and peaceful. The author has found peace in the athletes death due to the fact that it has had a positive impact on the athletes title. The tone shifts from celebratory to sad, from victory to death. The reader feels celebratory for this athlete but it becomes mournful when the athlete dies immediately after his victory but the author brings light to the athletes death emphasizing that death has created a legend, life wouldn’t have. The idea of the poem is bitter-sweet.

The poem “To An Athlete Dying Young” has a very powerful theme that your greatest accomplishments and your greatness can live on after death. The dead athlete is praised for dying young because now he will be remembered in glory and not forgotten. When you die old most of the time your greatness begins to fade but when you die at your greatest peak you become a legend. The author finds positivity in death which most of us would find awful. Memories are truly important because that’s how we all leave a mark on this earth when we die. Sometimes the worst things in life are working for our best.