To An Athlete Dying Young Analysis

The poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman tells the story of an athlete, from nineteenth century England, who was able to grasp on to his glory by dying soon after he received it. Glory is tricky to handle, it cannot be captured by the living because there will always be someone better than those who have it. The poem was written to praise the athlete for his smart yet sad actions of dying too early. It explains how the death was well timed because the athlete was able to die before his name was outlived by his body. In the first stanza of the poem, the town “chaired [him] through the market-place;/ [and] home [they] brought [him] shoulder-high.” The crowd cheers for the athlete who made his town proud. The poem is written with