To An Athlete Dying Young Analysis

Have you recently devoted yourself to someone in the name of eternal love? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live forever? Do you spend late nights lying in bed contemplating the rest of your live and how to go about living it? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions chances are you’re just like everyone else on Earth. Just because you do these things doesn’t make you any different or strange, it makes you human. Ever since the dawn of time people have been studying and discovering the best ways to survive; but more than that, the best way to live. In life there are always things or people that leave you clues to how to live your life in the best possible way. For example, all literary works have themes in them that

Housman is that life is short so you should do what you can. Now we are all aware that no one lives forever, I mean you don’t see two hundred old men walking down the street. One of the most important philosophies that every human being has to comprehend at one point or another is the fact that all our time is numbered. If you live through life without knowing that time is limited you might not do things the same. For example, I can tell you that I’m going to do something tomorrow as much as I want, but the truth of the matter is I don’t get a tomorrow for certain. People tend to expect to continue living from day to day, not knowing exactly when we are going to go, but knowing it’s coming sooner or later. Because of the fact that we are all going to die eventually many authors have written about the theme of death, more specifically the theme of dying. In this particular poem we are presented with the theme that life is short and because of that we are all destined to die. Plainly put this poem is about a kid who dies very young and because of this it’s extremely sad for everyone in the town he lives in. The fact that even people who are so young can expire before the rest of us is not only saddening, but also eye opening. Just recently there was a death in my local community that opened the eyes of many people, including my own; this was the death of a great father and teacher Kevin

E. Housman is the idea that people are always there to carry us in life. When you’re born one of the first things that happen is that you get held by your parents. For the next several years, you will continue to be carried by your loved ones. Humans have become accustomed to being helped through life, all of life. As you grow older and do something spectacular you will more than likely get carried again? For example, when athletes like the one in the poem does something amazing they are held up by the crowd, carried on their shoulders through the streets, down victory lane if you will. The ironic thing about life is that when we die we are once again carried by people who love us and placed in the next step of our lives. The pallbearers that carry your casket when you die are hopefully loving friends and family. At this time you are once again carried at shoulder height, being put on display for all to see. We see this in the poem in lines 1-7; “The time you won your town the race/ we chaired you through the marketplace/ 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…./” If we didn’t have people in our lives there to carry us through the hard times, who’s to say we wouldn’t all fail. People have and always are there to support our fellow humans, all of them,