Athlete Dying Young

Words: 750
Pages: 3

In the poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman is a lyric poem that gives the idea that it is better for an athlete to die during their prime. The poem was published in the 1896 during the period of both of Boer Wars. This could’ve given the idea of young men losing their life and not getting a chance to show their worth. The use of a lyric poem is to follow musical rhythm, which can often use romantic feelings or other strong emotions. In the poem, one thing it does is recommend that death is a good idea when an athlete is at his top performance and not witness someone beating their record. The reason being that people would not forget about what they had accomplished. The rhyming used within the poem is aabb, ccdd, eeff, and so on.

Firstly, the speaker doesn’t jump straight into death, but started cheerful to honor the athlete. In the first stanza “We chaired you through the
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When the athlete has passed and his eyes are closed and can see nothing but darkness. The athlete “Cannot see the record cut” (Housman, 14). When the eyes are closed that athlete can’t see his record broken and feelings of disappointments. Others reader would rather feel disappointed than being dead. The speaker suggested that when the athlete is not as good “silence sounds no worse than cheers” (Housman, 15). As the athlete grows old, he would not be as athletic or great as when he once was. Also, suggests that being dead the athlete will not hear the negative talks being made towards him because when you are gone you won’t be able to hear. In the fifth stanza, the speaker said “Runners whom renown outran. And the name died before the man.” (Housman, 19-20). He is stating that the fame of the athlete will eventually die before the athlete passes away. This stanza puts forward, since our athlete has died, he doesn’t have to worry about that issue and he’ll be remembered for his