LaurenW

="To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman=

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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-laureled head Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl's.

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 * TITLE**: Title can be taken literally, meaning that the poem is about a young athlete who has died. It also could be taken figuratively, meaning that the poem could be about the downfall of an athlete's reputation or career.


 * PARAPHRASE**: A successful athlete has been revered in his hometown in the past, but his second homecoming is to commemorate his death, not his victory. The speaker then talks about the finite nature of success and glory, saying that the boiy was wise to die before his glory faded; he will never live to see his records broken, and he will never have to outlive his renown. Because it was a good thing for him to die before being forgotten or looked down upon by others, his brief life has been a success.

__Rhyme scheme__ - the poem has aabb... form throughout. Slant and near rhymes are incorporated in a few of the lines ("come" and "home," lines 5-6). __Diction__ - formal in its phrasing, but the words themselves are not of extensive vocabulary ("And set you at your threshold down, / Townsman of a stiller town" (7-8)). __Language__ - certain dated words are used that cause the poem to sound like the event has happened long ago. For example, "to-day" instead of "today," and the English spelling of "honours" rather than the American spelling. __Syntax__ - sentences are all roughly the same length, because each stanza is one sentence long. Some of the words are in unusual order in each of the sentence, probably to make the rhyme scheme work consistently. For example, the subject of the sentence is stated after the verb and modifying details in lines 25-26 ("And round that early-laurelled head / Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead"). __Imagery__ - there is an ongoing metaphor throughout the poem relating death to sleep and peacefulness. Personification takes place in many areas of the poem, mostly relating to death ("Eyes the shady night has shut" (13), "After earth has stopped the ears" (16)). "Threshold" in line 7 is metaphorical for the grave. Allusions to laurel also appear multiple times. Laurel is the plant out of which crowns were made for the winners of the first Olympic Games thousands of years ago. It is also a universally recognized symbol of glory and success.
 * CONNOTATIONS**:


 * ATTITUDE**: In the first stanzas regarding the athlete's former glory, the speaker seems reminiscent in tone, remembering the boy's days at the peak of his career. In later stanzas, he sounds almost envious of the athlete's untimely death, listing all of the reasons for which he thinks the boy is wise for dying so young. There is no sadness in his attitude, and he seems to be talking directly to the boy and encouraging him as if he were still alive.

Stanzas 1, 2, 5, and 6 address the athlete directly, although he is dead and cannot respond; stanzas 3 and 7 shift and speak to a more general audience.
 * SHIFTS**: There is a shift between stanzas 1 and 2, during which the time frame shifts from past to present.


 * THEME**: Although many people find it a shame for untimely deaths to occur, especially when the deceased were at the apex of their talents, their deaths are not to be regretted; instead, people should celebrate their lives for all they did manage to accomplish during their short lifetimes.


 * TITLE**: The title is literally referring to an athlete who has died at a young age.