To an athlete dying young themes is a poem by A. E. Housman.
The poem "To an athlete dying young" was written by the British Victorian poet A.E.Housman's best-selling collection, Shropshire Lad, was originally published in 1896.The poem focuses on a funeral for an athlete who has died young.The speaker praises the young man for departing early from his life, but in doing so also reveals a general anxiety and confusion about the meaning of mortality.There is a tension in the poem between the grim realities of death and the speaker's attempt to memorialize the athlete through elegant language.
We brought you home after the race, because the man and boy stood cheering by.
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 boy, to slip away from fields where glory does not stay.
The shady night has ended and we can't see the record cut.
The name died before the man when runners who renown outran him.
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.
Will flock to look at the strengthless dead, and find unwithered on its curls.
The definition of any word can be found in the context of the poem.The order in which the words appear in the poem is listed.
The full text of Housman's most popular book of poems is taken.
The Invention of Love is a play by Tom Stoppard.Housman is in the classical underworld.
The Oscar-winning film Out of Africa is about the time of British colonial rule in Africa.
In this poem, American poet Ezra Pound mocks Housman's tendency towards "woe."
The history of the English county in which Housman's most famous work is set can be found on the web.