To An Athlete Dying Young Poem Analysis

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“To an Athlete Dying Young” is is a poem that conveys the fragility of life and fame to any readers who are intelligent enough to comprehend the underlying message. Essentially, it’s a poem about a boy who wins a race, but his fame quickly fades away and proceeds to die. As you can tell, this author writes very upbeat and happy content. The theme is that “fame fades fast,” which happened to this boy shortly before his untimely death. This poem uses a lot of great metaphors, such as “And early though the laurel grows, It withers quicker than the rose,” which not only serves as a metaphor for the fact that fame ends before life, but it is also a beautiful use of foreshadowing the next stanza where his death occurs. The mood isn’t exactly upbeat