To An Athlete Dying Young Essay

Death often times possesses a negative connotation with a dark or evil perception. In Housman’s poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” the poet statically twists his words to have the opposite perception of death. In this poem, a young, healthy athlete has just died. The poet creates a storyline to present to the reader that the athlete’s death was not actually a misfortune, but a positive occurrence. Through Housman’s use of diction, parallel structure, and symbols Housman reassures the athlete that his or her death was at a pivotal point for the athlete’s legacy; as a result of the athlete’s short life, he will not have to suffer from fading glory. Housman justifies the tragic death of this young athlete by drawing parallel structure between his glory and death.

The speaker admires the athlete and is complimentary of the athlete using “Smart lad,” (9). He keeps a positive outlook on the athlete’s death throughout the poem. Even though it is a dark subject, the poet is able to keep a bright viewpoint on the situation. The poet draws similarities between death and glory, which is unusual because glory is usually associated with a positive, bright tone and death is associated with shady negative tone. The reason for glory being so bright is because glory is a standpoint where people admire you because you set a good standard for other people to follow. Death is associated with a shadow or negative tone because it is a phase of life that we don't know of yet. It is a territory of unknown and us humans do not like the unknown so we associate death with darkness. The poet explains “Smart lad, to slip betimes away/From fields where glory does not stay,”(9/10) the quote explains death as an escape from a situation where it is mostly a demoralizing or dimensioning situation. The poet also uses death and glory in the same sentence to bring the two things closer to one another. The effect of using death and glory in the