Post 3: Rachel Hart

To an Athlete Dying Young

BY A. E. HOUSMAN

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.

Today, 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.

Housman, A. E. "To an Athlete Dying Young." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175749>

This elegy takes the form of the traditional elegy with the three elements of lament, praise and solace. Housman begins with a reflection to a time when the athlete was celebrated for a victory. This reflection shows a positive image of the athlete and reflects happier times. He then discusses the honorable qualities of the athlete and how he was taken too soon.  Next, he transitions to praise by telling the athlete that he was a "Smart lad, to slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay." He also tells the boy that he died while he was at his peak and before he became the man that outlived his talent. Finally, he tells the young athlete that he should go into death with pride from the "The still-defended challenge-cup" he earned while he was alive.