Kailee Schacht

AP Literature
Poetry Explication
6 March 2017

Explication of To an Athlete Dying Young

In Alfred Edward Housmans poem To an Athlete Dying Young, the poet illustrates the
glory between both life and death. The speaker of the poem is an adult close to the boy who has
now died. The occasion changes from a memory of a race won, to a reflection on the death and
aftermath of that death, of a young athlete. The speaker, using an apostrophe, addresses the boy
who is now dead. The purpose of the poem is to commemorate the life of this athlete. The tone
of the poem changes from happy to mournful making the poem an elegy. Housman uses his
poems setup (rhythm scheme, etc.) and figurative language like metaphors, similes, imagery to
illustrate the theme that life should be cherished because it may go too fast.
Housmans poem is a lyrical elegy which has seven quatrains that each contain two
different sets of couplets. Housman also rhymes lines successively. Also, each quatrain has one
long sentence with each line containing eight syllables. In the poem, Housman switches
perspectives from being at the finish line where we chaired you through the market-place to
being at the cemetery where they will set you at your threshold down, when this happens, then
the tone changes from positive to negative. Housman uses repetition between the lines And
home we brought you shoulder-high and Shoulder-high we bring you home, which also talks
about when the runner comes home from the race and the day of his memorial service at his
funeral.
Housman expresses his complex thoughts through figurative language. Housman uses
imagery, which is lines two through four saying, We chaired you through the market-place; /
Man and boy stood cheering by, / And home we brought you shoulder-high. This allows the
reader to picture how the town welcomed and cheered on the runner after he had finished his
race and was coming home with a victory. Another element Housman uses is metaphors, which
are expressed on line 10, From fields where glory does not stay, where glory is compared to a
person or thing that leaves a field, on lines eleven and twelve, and on line 13, Eyes the shady
night has shut, where death is compared to night and sleeping. Similes are also used in his
poems like on lines eleven and twelve, And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker
than the rose, where a laurel plant is being compared to a rose plant. Oxymorons are another
element used in his poems like the one on line 15, And silence sounds no worse than cheers,
which states that even though he may be dead, the town will still be happy and celebrate what he
has accomplished. Housman likes to use personification throughout his poems also like on line
thirteen, Eyes the shady night has shut, because the night does not have eyes to shut and on
line sixteen, After earth has stopped the ears, because the earth does not have ears to stop the
sound.
In conclusion, Housman uses situational irony to compare this athlete who has ability,
life, and strength to death which is still, silent, and dark. Housmans use of the poems set-up
and figurative language to illustrate the glory between death and life and to cherish life before it
goes by too fast. The athlete this poem was dedicated to will always be cherished by his town
and by the readers who read it. Cherish the moments you have with someone because you never
know when they or you will never be there again.