Analysis Of To An Athlete Dyin

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you at your threshold down” (Housman l. 7), and causes the grief to reach a higher level. Most people desire to live to a ripe old age and they would be aghast to have a premature death viewed through a positive light. Yet a “positive funeral” is exactly the driving force behind A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young.” The poem states outright that it is better to die in the glory of youth than to rest too long on one’s laurels, only to see those laurels wither “From fields where glory does not stay and early though the laurel grows, it withers quicker than the rose” (ll. 10-12).
The poem takes place at the funeral of a young champion runner. Rather than join the others in mourning, the speaker is instead reflecting on how lucky the young athlete was to have died when he did, instead of lingering on outlasting the glory of his victories, “From fields where glory does not stay and early though the laurel grows, it ...

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