To An Athlete Dying Young Figurative Language

A.E. Housman, usually known for writing about death and young age, uses precise diction, language usage, and style to help the reader know exactly what he is talking about in his works. In order for a poem to make be on point, the word choice needs to be accurate. In the poem “To An Athlete Dying Young”, Housman uses diction, syntax, and tone to perfection.
Every poet has his or her own type of work. Some poets write different types of sentences, figurative language, and words. In the poem, “To An Athlete Dying Young”, A.E. Housman’s diction and word choice is very important to help the reader imagine what is going on in the scene. The diction used is formal because the use of elegant and sophisticated word choice. For example, “Smart lad, to slip betimes away, From fields where glory does not stay, And early through the laurel grows, It withers quicker than the rose.”(Line 9-12)., shows how the vocabulary is used in a graceful way, but easy to understand what Housman is trying to interpret in the poem. Furthermore, the

In “To An Athlete Dying Young”, tone greatly affects the poem by the transition from the beginning of the poem, to the end. In the poem, the tone is very joyful as a runner wins a race and the whole town is celebrating his win. But as he transitions to the next stanza Housman discusses how the athlete should not be celebrating because in the end, glory will fade away. The shift that took place changes the tons to a more serious tone that later transition to the death of the runner, which changes the tone to a more depressing attitude because the town’s “hero” died a young age. In addition to depressing and joyful, the tone can be irony as well as the runner’s became more famous when he died, other than when he was alive. The tone to “To An Athlete Dying Young” relates to the meaning of this poem by how quickly fame came come and go, just like a life can come and