Michael+Jin

A. E. Housman. ** ||
 * **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 outran || ||
 * And the name died before the man. || ||
 * So set, before its echoes fade, || ||
 * The fleet foot on the sill of shade, || ||
 * And hold to the low lintel up || ||
 * The still-defended challenge-cup. || ||
 * And round that early-laurelled head || ||
 * Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, || ||
 * And find unwithered on its curls || ||
 * The garland briefer than a girl's. || ||
 * The still-defended challenge-cup. || ||
 * And round that early-laurelled head || ||
 * Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, || ||
 * And find unwithered on its curls || ||
 * The garland briefer than a girl's. || ||
 * The garland briefer than a girl's. || ||


 * TPCASTT: To an Athlete Dying Young**

Title The title seems to suggest that the speaker is giving the athlete advice about dying young.

Paraphrase: After an athlete won a race, the townspeople carried him on their shoulders while a crowd stood by cheering. Now, the athlete is being carried in a coffin to the cemetery. The athlete died too young for his glory to die. Now that he is dead, he cannot witness his record be broken by others. Silence and cheers now sound the same because he is dead. He will not be one of the athletes who lived long and were forgotten when they could no longer perform. The tomb is set before his glory could fade. The dead will forever see him in his victory.

Connotation: Diction · The speaker associates the rose, a beautiful flower, with death. · By saying that silence and cheers would sound the same to a dead person, the speaker suggests that the dead cannot witness his record being broken. · In lines nine and ten, the diction of the poem begins to change from direct statements to a more lyrical manner of expression. This coincides with the speaker’s shift from simply telling the plot of his story to his philosophical interpretation of events. Point of View The poem is in third person point of view. This allows the reader to experience the death of the athlete as not a tragic event but more of a philosophical one, thus making the argument clearer. Symbolism · Laurel is fame. · Rose is life. · Shady night is death. Imagery · The imagery of the market place helps color the life of the living. · The imagery of the graveyard helps make death seem not so horrific. · The imagery of the afterlife highlights the glory of dying young. Figurative Language · Shady night is used as a euphemism for death and is used to make death seem not so bad. Allusion · The laurel is an allusion to the crown Olympic champions used to wear. Form The lines of the poem are arranged so that every stanza has a general theme. This helps to advance the argument.

Attitude The speaker feels that it is better to die younger and still be famous than to die later and have one’s accomplishments be forgotten.

Shift The shift between the first and second stanzas contrasts the two methods that the athlete was being held-up. The shift fifth and sixth stanza highlights the difference between a person dying old, when their achievements are forgotten, and dying young, when their achievements are still remembered.

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.

Title The title is advocating that since glory is fleeting, dying young is not too bad of an idea.

** To an Athlete Voice Thread **

http://voicethread.com/share/961362/  In the first stanza of “To an Athlete Dying Young,” the speaker presents an image of a young athlete on a day when he had won a race for his town. Lines 2 through 4 establish the reaction of the townspeople to their competitor’s victory. It is clear that the athlete was much lauded, and he was placed on an emotional/psychological pedestal as well as a physical one, wherein he was brought home “shoulder-high” through the town’s marketplace. These lines tell us that the athlete is again being carried “shoulder-high” by the townspeople; this time, however, pallbearers are carrying him in a casket to his grave. The phrase “The road all runners come” signals the speaker’s awareness of the mortality of all people. Line 7 continues the narrative by telling us that the body is lowered and “set” at a “threshold.” The “threshold” may literally be the physical edges of a grave, but it could also refer to the boundary between earthly reality and the world of the dead. The “threshold” thus becomes the entryway to the place where the dead athlete will spend eternity.
 * Stanza 1 and 2 **

In lines nine and ten, the diction of the poem begins to change from direct statements to a more lyrical manner of expression. This coincides with the speaker’s shift from simply telling the plot of his story to his philosophical interpretation of events. The speaker suggests that the athlete was “smart” to die and leave the natural world, where “glory does not stay.” The speaker implies that, as time progressed, the townspeople would not remember the runner’s victory. This potential outcome points to the idea that the world, in general, is made up of people who are fickle, holding someone up as a hero at one point in time only to later forget them. This idea is continued in lines 11 and 12 where the speaker introduces the laurel as a symbol of victory. The idea of a laurel leaf representing the brevity of physical beauty and strength is furthered by its comparison to the rose, which also dies quickly (but not as quickly as the laurel). This continues the concept of glory fading early and of youthful male beauty being short-lived. In this stanza, the speaker reinforces the idea that it is wise to “slip” away into death at the peak of youthful athleticism, while still lauded as a hero. The athlete will not have to see his record being “cut” (broken) nor be alive to see the cheering stops.
 * Stanza 3 and 4 **

Stanza 5 emphasizes, the speaker’s observation that all athletes, at some point, fade in their ability to perform and to win. The athlete’s “renown” eventually outruns them because they can no longer uphold their athletic reputation through age. Since the hero-athlete of this poem has died while at his peak, he will not have to become part of this “rout” (crowd) of has-been athletes. The plot progresses. The speaker speaks to his fellow townspeople, directing them to place the athlete’s body down at its grave quickly before the townspeople’s memories of his victory fade. Housman’s choice of the word “set” in line 21 not only echoes his use of the same word in line 7, but establishes the permanence in the dead athlete’s reputation and glory. The fact that the speaker hurries the townspeople to “set” the “fleet foot” down at “the sill of shade” before the foot’s “echoes fade” emphasizes how quickly our youthful lives pass. In lines 23 and 24, we are given the image of the victor’s challenge-cup still being celebrated as it is held out toward the “low lintel,” or ornament over the door to the world of the dead. This stanza particularly demonstrates the tension between the idea that life is full of vibrancy and energy and the concept that it might be advantageous to die young.
 * Stanza 5 and 6 **

The last stanza of “To an Athlete Dying Young” presents the image of the dead athlete having passed through the threshold into the world of the dead as young and wearing the laurel. The dead, who come to gaze at him are “strengthless,” compared to the athlete, who is still depicted as young and strong because he was “smart” enough to die in his youth. The garland is expressed as “unwithered,” reiterating Housman’s theme of the permanent victory an early death provides. The garland is “briefer than a girl’s,” means that the garland usually (in the natural world) withers more quickly than the rose Housman introduces in line 12, but that here it will live forever as a symbol of a glory that will not fade as it would with the passage of earthly time.
 * Stanza 7 **