To an Athlete Dying Young

To An Athlete Dying Young               

Type of Work

"To an Athlete Dying Young" is a lyric poem.  Because it praises an athlete who died young, the poem may be further classifed as an elegy.

Setting

The poem is set in a town and cemetery in nineteenth-century England during the funeral and burial of a young athlete, a runner. 

Characters

Athlete: Running champion who died at the the peak of his athletic ability after becoming a champion. 
Narrator (Speaker): The poet, Housman, who assumes the persona of a resident of the town in which the athlete lived.
Townspeople: Neighbors and admirers of the athlete. They carried him on their shoulders after he won a race. 

Theme

Glory is fleeting. The only way a person can capture it and make it last is to die young after achieving greatness. In this way, the person can live forever in the minds of people who remember him at the the peak of his powers. Although Housman does not wish his readers to take this message literally, the undercurrent of cynicism in the poem suggests that life in later years is humdrum and wearisome. Consequently, he praises the young athlete for dying before his glory fades: “Smart lad, to slip betimes away / From fields  where glory does not stay. . . .”  

In the last century, the early deaths of baseball player Lou Gehrig (age 37), aviator Amelia Earhart (39), actor James Dean (24), actress Marilyn Monroe (36), female athlete Babe Didrickson Zaharias (42), U.S. President John F. Kennedy (46), civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (39), singer Elvis Presley (42), singer John Lennon (40), singer Janis Joplin (27), and Princess Diana of Great Britain (36) all seem testify to the validity of Housman’s thesis. By taking away their lives when they were still relatively young, death gave them eternal life in the minds of their admirers.

Commentary

Housman’s cynical view of life may have a certain perverse appeal for young people disenchanted with life. These are the youths who sometimes act on their “death wishes” by taking dangerous risks in fast cars, by experimenting with drugs, or by committing acts of violence that end in suicide. Housman himself was troubled as a youth as a result of his shyness and the fact that his mother died when he was only twelve. At Oxford University, he was a brilliant student but failed his final examinations, and he ended up accepting a humdrum job as a civil servant. 

Obviously, “To an Athlete Dying Young” is a thought-provoking poem of considerable merit. It makes the reader think about life and its meaning, and its beautiful imagery and rhyme scheme please the eye and the ear. And, though Housman is right when says people tend to remember public figures of great promise who die young, he neglects to mention that people also remember important men and women who lived well beyond middle age, including Sophocles, the greatest playwright of antiquity, who was 91 when he died; Augustus Caesar, the emperor of ancient Rome during its Golden Age, who was 77 when he died; Michelangelo Buonarroti, the extraordinary Renaissance artist and sculptor, who was nearing 89 when he died; Victoria, queen of the British Empire at the height of its power in the nineteenth century, who was 81 when she died; Pablo Picasso, perhaps the most influential artist of the twentieth century, who was 91 when he died; Albert Einstein, developer of the revolutionary Special and General Theories of Relativity, who was 76 when he died; and Mother Theresa of Calcutta, the Nobel Prize-winning nun famous for her work among the poor, who was 87 when she died. And who will ever forget Mahatma Gandhi, the "father of modern India," who was 79 when he was assassinated, and Pope John Paul II, who helped topple Soviet communism and promoted ecumenism with Jews and other non-Catholics. He was a few months short of his 85th birthday when he died. 

Yes, dying an untimely and early death can earn headlines and television eulogies for the deceased person. But long-lasting fame depends more on compiling a record of accomplishments than on “going out in a blaze of glory.” 

Format: Rhyme and Stanzas

The poem has seven stanzas. Each stanza consists of two pairs of end-rhyming lines, or couplets. 

Figures of Speech

Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem.

Alliteration

Line 1:....The time you won your town the race
Line 5:....road all runners
Line 8:....Townsman of a stiller town
Line 22:...fleet foot (line 22)

Apostrophe

Apostrophe is a figure speech in which the speaker of a poem, the writer of another literary work, or an actor in a play addresses an abstraction or a thing, present or absent; an absent entity or person; or a deceased person. In "To an Athlete Dying Young," the speaker addresses the deceased athlete. 

Metaphor

Line 8:...stiller town
................Comparison of a cemetery to a town

Line 10: fields where glory does not stay
................Comparison of glory to a person or thing that leaves the fields

Line 13: Eyes the shady night has shut
................Comparison of death to night

Line 19: Runners whom renown outran
................Comparison of renown to an athlete

Oxymoron

Line 14: silence sounds 

Simile

Line 12: It withers quicker than the rose
................Comparison of the endurance of a laurel, a symbol of glory and victory, to the endurance of a rose
................(Some similes use than instead of as or like.)

Synecdoche

Fleet foot on the sill of shade (foot represents the entire body)

 Another Person's Views

To an Athlete Dying Young, by A. E. Housman, gives the reader an alternate view of death. Rather than death in youth being a sad and mournful time, the speaker sees it as an escape from seeing your life's work forgotten and faded. 

The speaker of this poem takes the form of one of the deceased's friends. This can be seen from the line, "shoulder-high, we bring you home" (6) because in a funeral, it is custom for the deceased's closest friends to carry the casket. The speaker plays an ironic part in this poem, seeing life ended early as a great and lucky thing. The speaker views an early death as an escapefrom seeing his accomplishments forgotten and faded. The line "And early though the laurel grows/ It whithers quicker than the rose."(11-12) is a clear description of the speakers view. A laurel is an evergreen tree that is the emblem of victory, distinction, and accomplishments. Knowing this, it becomes obvious that the speaker is saying that accomplishments happen early in life and because of this, it is better to die in the glory of youth then to rest too long on one's laurels only to see them fade, beaten out, and forgotten. To the speaker, being forgotten is the worst thing that can happen to man saying, "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." (17-20). The speaker is clearly envious of the deceased, and one gets the feeling that he is reflecting on his own life in this poem, on his accomplishments and how they were overshadowed by the accomplishments of others. The speaker wishes that he could have died in his prime so that he did not have to feel the pain of becoming another nameless forgotten blob in a sea of nameless blobs.

The rhyme and meter are also very important in this poem. The rhyme scheme is in AA BB format, producing a then and now feel. This is how it once was, and now this is how it is and how it will be. The meter is also important. Each line has eight syllables and when reading this poem, it seems to set a pace, much like the footsteps of a runner. This is important not only because the poem is about the life and death of a runner, but because it also shows the pace of life and life after death. It shows that life still goes on, and that life does not stop because of a death. In fact, life can erase any evidence of a deceased person's life.

There are two prominent literary devices used in this poem, personification and apostrophe. Personification can be seen in the lines "Eyes the shady night has shut" (13) and "After earth as stopped the ears" (16). Night cannot shut, and earth obviously cannot stop one's ears, it has no hands. Yet in this poem these two lines provide the reader with the feeling that death is a natural and peaceful bliss for this man, protecting him from seeing his glory fade and his fame forgotten. 

Apostrophe can be seen in the opening stanza "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." The speaker here is speaking to the runner as if he is still alive. By speaking in this manner throughout the poem, it feels as if he is reminiscing on the young man's life, and then reassuring him that dying young is better then dying after one's prime. This brings the reader into the poem, and makes them feel a connection to both the speaker and the young man.

Answer these Questions 

1. What is the theme of the poem?

2. What is the intention of the poet?

3. Find two expressions in stanza one (1) which indicate the

spectator’s response to the athlete’s victory.

4. What does the line “Townsman of a stiller town” suggest about the athlete?

5. Quote two expressions in stanza three (3) which show the poet’s view on

“glory and laurels”.

6. Why would “silence” and “cheers sound the same to the dying athlete?

7. Write T next to the statements that are true.

By dying young the athlete’s glory

a. died with him.

b. is unchallenged on the field.

c. does not gain wide acclaim.

d. is not worn down by time.

e. is suppressed by other runners.

8. The poem best exemplifies

a. reflections on the transience of fame and glory.

b. a tribute on the demise of a young successful athlete.

c. ovation on the victory of a young adult.

d. thoughts on life after death.