To An Athlete Dying Young Essay

Many people live their lives looking back on the glory days. They look at what they used to be instead of what they are now. They are so caught up in the past that they can’t fully engage in the present. Many athletes try to look back on the great accomplishments that they have achieved. They see the highlights of their life slip away from them as they get older. A. E. Housman talks about these ideas in his poem “To an Athlete Dying Young”. Three messages that A. E. Housman conveys in his poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” are make a mark while while still possible, dying young isn't the worst thing, and sometimes it’s better to leave before your fame does.

The first message that A. E. Housman gives in “To an Athlete Dying Young”

E. Housman in “To an Athlete Dying Young”, is sometimes it is better to leave before your fame does. As young athletes people work the way up to the peak of their life. Then, for the rest of their life they have to stand by and watch their fame slowly die. They have to come to the realization that they are not what they used to be. On page 1092, Housman states, “Smart lad, to slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay and early though the laurel grows it withers quicker than the rose.” Housman is saying that it was smart of the young man to die before he has to watch his fame die.

Sometimes in life, a person has to watch their fame perish. They see what they used to be and compare it to what they are now. A.E. Housman did just that in his poem “To an Athlete Dying Young”. The first message that Housman gave was to make a mark on the world while it is still possible. Life can be very unpredictable. The second message was that dying young isn’t the worst thing. By dying young a person misses out on the many sad things of life. The third message was it is sometimes better to leave before your fame does. To watch where a person once was to where they are now can be very