A. E. Housman's 'To an Athlete Dying Young'

A. E. Housmans To an Athlete Dying Young, also known as

Lyric XIX in A Shropshire Lad, holds as its main theme the

premature death of a young jockstrap as told from the point of public opinion

of a hotshot serving as pall bearer. The poem reveals the concept

that those dying at the peak of their idealisation or youth are really

quite lucky. The get-go few readings of To an Athlete Dying Young

provides the reader with an understanding of Housmans view of

death. Additional readings reveal Housmans attempt to convey the

classical idea that youth, beauty, and glory can be preserved only

in death.

A line-by-line analysis helps to determine the decision of the

poem. The world-class stanza of the poem tells of the athletes triumph

and his glory filled parade through and through the townspeople in which the crowd

loves and cheers for him. As Bobby Joe Leggett defines at this

point, the athlete is carried of the shoulders of his friends

after a winning race (54). In Housmans words:

The time you won your town the race

We chaired you through the market place;

Man and boy stood cheering by,

And sign we brought you shoulder-high. (Housman 967).

Stanza two describes a much more somber procession. The athlete is

being carried to his grave.



In Leggetts opinion, The parallels

between this procession and the former triumph are carefully drawn

(54). The reader should see that Housman makes another reference

to shoulders as an allusion to connect the first two stanzas:

Today, the road all runners come,

Shoulder high we bring you home,

And assemble you at the threshold down,

Townsman of a stiller town. (967)

In stanza three Housman describes the laurel ripening early yet

dying quicker than a rose. (967) This parallels the smart lad

who chose to...

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