A Worse Fate than Death

XIX. To an Athlete Dying Young
by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
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 were 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.

The poem, "To an Athlete Dying Young", is a poem that can extend through all generations without any loss of meaning. Even though this poem was written many generations ago, the meaning can still be applied to all athletes in this day and age. This is an important aspect in a work of art or literature because this poem can be appreciated for many, many generations without any loss of understanding. In reading this poem, it is important to understand that the author's use of a dramatic and seemingly dreary topic is a cover for giving a critical view of growing old as something to be avoided and feared. Underneath the surface of this poem is an ironic portrayal of death used as a way to glorify yourself.

The basic theme that this poem creates, before the reader understands the underlying commentary in the poem, is one of seeing the happiness in the gloom, the lighter side of the dark, without being explicitly morbid in the process. This poem is key in explaining the feeling of tragedy of an athlete dying in the peak of his or her talent. It shows the feelings associated with the accomplishments that the athlete takes to his grave is never forgotten because the glory of his endeavors weren’t given time to diminish before the athlete passed on. This poem can be seen as an ironically critical view of continuing life even after a person’s glory years have long since faded. Housman seems to be making a social commentary that life is great and wonderful when you are young and in your prime, but later, life becomes tiresome and your glory fades as your body disintegrates. The author does not appear to truly believe that it is beneficial for athletes to parish in their prime of athleticism, but rather understands that it is hard for people with such accomplishments early in their lives to grow old and lose what they had worked so hard to gain as young people. Growing old means losing your magnificence, a hard process to undergo for highly accomplished individuals.
While the writer shows this social commentary about the pities of growing old, readers do not take this poem to mean that life is only good if you are able to die in your glory days. It is an underlying irony that the author shows life as amazing in the peak moments of life and better to be ended during these times of glory. It is a sad truth that magnificence achieved during childhood is not glory that follows you into old age, but all that remains are the memories of greatness and rusty trophies that have no meaning. The author tries to capture this loss of greatness by showing the accomplishments of an athlete who died in his prime overcoming his “name d[ying] before the man” (line 20). The reader feels the sadness of the poem but can also understand that growing old can also be a terrible depression to one of such accomplishment, and therefore death can seem to be a blessing.
While this poem doesn’t show an obvious irony or commentary on society, the underlying message is one of morbid realization. Housman wants the reader to understand that while he does not believe that early deaths are something to be celebrating, in a world where accomplishments are prized above all else, early death means an athlete will never “see the record cut” or feel the decline of his glory. It is ironic that a poem that seems so tragic in theme—with the death of a young person—really is commenting that old age takes glory from those who deserve to remember glory for their whole lives. This robbery of feelings is even more tragic, according to this poem, than the loss of life. Death is the simple irony of humanity that saves glory forever but takes life with it (651).