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Analysis Of To An Athlete Dyin - Term Papers

Analysis Of To An Athlete Dyin

“To An Athlete Dying Young”
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown ...

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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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Analysis Of To An Athlete Dyin. (2006, September 2). Retrieved February 20, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Of-To-An-Athlete-Dyin/51717

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 9/2/2006 12:53:44 AM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 999
Pages: 4

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