"To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman - Analysis
This poem was written by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936), a British poet and scholar. He was born in Fockbury, Worcestershire, England, the oldest of seven kids. When his mother died, Housman was twelve years old and was deeply affected. First appointed as Professor of Latin at University College, London, Housman later taught at Trinity College, Cambridge. Despite academic acclaim, he lived mostly as a recluse. He rejected awards and avoided publicity. Housman published two volumes of poetry during his lifetime, A Shropshire Lad and Poems, while a third volume entitled More Poems was released posthumously by his brother.
I read To an Athlete Dying Young on http://www.poetryoutloud.org, a reliable source that contains a large resource of published poems from hundreds of well-known poets. To an Athlete Dying Young was originally published in 1896 in A Shropshire Lad, which was written for Housman’s dying friend Moses Jackson.
I picked this poem because despite the depressing premise, the overall tone of the poem is uplifting and celebratory. It appealed to me because of the imagery and language that Housman used. This poem fits with my theme because it is about the emotions the speaker is feeling at the death of a runner.
To an Athlete Dying Young takes the poetic form of an elegy, with seven quatrains. The rhyming pattern is aabb ccdd and so on. This poem is also written in iambic tetrameter. These consistent, strong techniques create a sensation of certainty, in that the reader is comfortable with each line’s sound and length. This makes the poem effective because though the form and meter are very certain, the concept of the poem - a young, unexpected death - is uncertain. This contradiction shows that while life is temporary and unstable, the form of the poem reflects the ideal of certainty in the world.
Along with the poetic form, numerous literary devices are used to make To an Athlete Dying Young effective. First, symbolism appears several times in the text. One instance of this is Housman’s use of flowers and vegetation to represent victory and defeat. In line 10, he wrote, “From fields where glory does not stay,” which is both literal and symbolic of the way fame and records change. The plants that flourish in the field in the springtime, the field’s “glory,” wither with the changing seasons. In lines 11-12, Housman references the laurel and the rose. The laurel, which “withers quicker than the rose,” represents victory, whereas roses represented respect for the dead. From this, the reader can understand that the laurel, or the acclaim of victory, diminishes quicker than the rose, or respect for the dead. In this way, the athlete retains the public’s respect, as they are dying young, before they suffer defeat.
Another literary technique that Housman used is metaphors. Shade and night are representative of death, whereas light represents life and warmth. Using this, Housman explained the athlete’s death in a more gentle way. In line 13, he wrote, “Eyes the shady night has shut,” which is less extreme than explicitly explaining the means of the athlete’s death. Shade, in this way, is a pleasant reprieve, an escape from the Sun’s heat. In other words, death is not intimidating. This same line is also an example of personification. The night, an inanimate concept, has shut the eyes of a living person. Using these techniques, Housman created a powerful piece of writing with To an Athlete Dying Young.
I read To an Athlete Dying Young on http://www.poetryoutloud.org, a reliable source that contains a large resource of published poems from hundreds of well-known poets. To an Athlete Dying Young was originally published in 1896 in A Shropshire Lad, which was written for Housman’s dying friend Moses Jackson.
I picked this poem because despite the depressing premise, the overall tone of the poem is uplifting and celebratory. It appealed to me because of the imagery and language that Housman used. This poem fits with my theme because it is about the emotions the speaker is feeling at the death of a runner.
To an Athlete Dying Young takes the poetic form of an elegy, with seven quatrains. The rhyming pattern is aabb ccdd and so on. This poem is also written in iambic tetrameter. These consistent, strong techniques create a sensation of certainty, in that the reader is comfortable with each line’s sound and length. This makes the poem effective because though the form and meter are very certain, the concept of the poem - a young, unexpected death - is uncertain. This contradiction shows that while life is temporary and unstable, the form of the poem reflects the ideal of certainty in the world.
Along with the poetic form, numerous literary devices are used to make To an Athlete Dying Young effective. First, symbolism appears several times in the text. One instance of this is Housman’s use of flowers and vegetation to represent victory and defeat. In line 10, he wrote, “From fields where glory does not stay,” which is both literal and symbolic of the way fame and records change. The plants that flourish in the field in the springtime, the field’s “glory,” wither with the changing seasons. In lines 11-12, Housman references the laurel and the rose. The laurel, which “withers quicker than the rose,” represents victory, whereas roses represented respect for the dead. From this, the reader can understand that the laurel, or the acclaim of victory, diminishes quicker than the rose, or respect for the dead. In this way, the athlete retains the public’s respect, as they are dying young, before they suffer defeat.
Another literary technique that Housman used is metaphors. Shade and night are representative of death, whereas light represents life and warmth. Using this, Housman explained the athlete’s death in a more gentle way. In line 13, he wrote, “Eyes the shady night has shut,” which is less extreme than explicitly explaining the means of the athlete’s death. Shade, in this way, is a pleasant reprieve, an escape from the Sun’s heat. In other words, death is not intimidating. This same line is also an example of personification. The night, an inanimate concept, has shut the eyes of a living person. Using these techniques, Housman created a powerful piece of writing with To an Athlete Dying Young.