To an Athlete Dying Young

At first, it seems that the tone of "To an Athlete Dying Young" is straightforwardly elegiac, the kind of tone one would expect from a poem written to commemorate the life of someone recently...

In A.E. Housman's poem "To an Athlete Dying Young," the poet uses the metaphor of the runner, an athlete, to represent all those who have died young while still in their prime and glory....

"To an Athlete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman approaches the topic of death in an unusual way. The point of view is third person with the narrator speaking as though he is one of the friends of the...

A. E. Housman takes an alternative look at dying in "To an Athlete Dying Young." Speaking directly to the young man who has died, the narrator tries to help not only himself but the other people...

"To An Athlete Dying Young" is a poem written in 1896 by A. E. (Alfred Edward) Housman. It's well known because of its subject matter. The poem deals with the death of a person in their physical...

One of the tragic fates in life is the death of young person in the prime of his life. Most people want to live a long life and would not wish a premature death on anyone. Yet, this is the...

The speaker of "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman talks directly to a young athlete, offering advice and reflections on living, dying, and fame. In the first stanza, the speaker recalls...

The closest to personification that first jumps out to me in A.E. Houseman’s poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” is in the fourth stanza: Eyes the shady night has shut Cannot see the record cut,...

The attitude to death that is expressed in this poem is that it is better to bow out of life when you have reached the pinnacle of your achievement as a human in your chosen field. Living beyond...

In my opinion, there is no way to know who the speaker is in any specific way. The only thing that we really can say about the speakers is that he (or she -- no way to know) is someone from the...

The poem is intentionally simple, to sound almost like regular conversation. There are times when it deviates from conventional conversation-like syntax though. Syntax is how the words are...

The simple rhymed couplets chosen as a rhyme pattern give the poem a child-like, simplistic tone, almost like a nursery song (“itsy bitsy spider,” etc.) that renders the naivete, the innocence that...

Although A.E. Housman's famous poem reflects some of the preoccupations of the Victorian Age, it was written a century later and thus belongs under the category of Modern Poetry.The Victorian Age...

The most central feature of "To an Athlete Dying Young" is the premise of the poem. The poem suggests that a successful athlete is better off dying young, because the best of life is behind him....

Housman, addressing a dead young athlete, tells him that it is better to die at the height of his power and achievement than to fade slowly away through aging and death. He speaks directly to the...

In these two lines, Housman is using both allusion and metaphor to describe the nature of early athleticism. In referring to the "laurel," he is alluding to the practice in the Classical world of...

The controlling metaphor of A. E. Housman’s poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” compares the running of a race to the living of a human life. Some people succeed in their races; others fail. Some...

The Modernism that is evident in the poem can be found in the idea of contingency that underscores so much of what Housman is saying. The fleeting glory of the athlete represents the passing of...

The basic idea of this famous poem is that it is better to die young, in your full strength and with all your abilities, rather than to grow old and gradually fade away before dying. The poem is...

What a great idea to compare these two poems! I hadn't thought of that before! Of course, one poem supports the central idea of the other completely, as the fate of the athlete in "Ex-Basketball...

I generally always analyze a poem along two main pathways. You can take them in either order too. One way to analyze a poem is to analyze the plot, meanings, and themes. The second way to analyze...

A. E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young" is written in a detached tone that pointedly underscores the irony of athletic glory. For, as the speaker notes, it is better to die young at the height...

The second stanza is full of clues that point towards the death of the athlete, even if we did not have the title to point it out to us. Note what the speaker says to the athlete who has died in...

The word choice in "To an Athlete Dying Young" creates a poignant tone that shows the pain of a brilliant young life cut short. In the beginning, the word choice focuses on the celebration of the...

The poetic concepts of open and closed forms reflect the poet's attitude toward and use of poetic structures, which include such things as meter, rhyme scheme, rhythm, verse (line) length, stanzas...

The speaker in the poem offers the idea that there is benefit in dying in one's prime as an athlete. In the lines "And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose," the speaker...

Robert Frost's poem "Out, Out—," and A.E. Housman's poem, "To an Athlete Dying Young" are similar in that they deal with two men dying young, but the tone is very different for each poem. There is...

Houseman's poem features a great deal of figurative language in its description of an athlete's accomplishments and the inevitable failure that awaits. The second stanza is a wonderful use of...

Since enotes only allows one question at a time, yours was edited. A. E. Housman was a poet who felt keenly the disappointments of life. Reflecting his sense of the contradictions of life, his...

Housman's poem offers only the slightest description of the setting, which has the effect of universalizing it: the action takes place in a small town, but it could be almost any town at anytime....

This is a tough one, I think, and I really only have one loosely connected work to give you. The theme of Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young" is that it's better to die young, when the early...