To An Athlete Dying Young Poem Analysis

Looking for poems to compare for this essay was hard but after the tragedy that struck USF this weekend gave me an insight of poems to choose. I choose “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman, “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein, and “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay because of the themes that represent life in the moments of dying and where our lives go in the future. In the poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” the author expresses the athlete winning a big race or game and how the whole town comes together and is cheering them on. Comparing this scenario to the poem “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and how coming to the end of a sidewalk is similar to a life ending and where they will go. Housman stats, “From fields where glory does not stay” (10) and comparing this line to “This is a place where the sidewalk ends,” (1) told by Silverstein. These lines from both the poems reflect off each other because the wins that the person received on the field will not stay with the field but rather with the person in spirit. Comparing this to the second line with the sidewalk ending is when an athlete passes away at a young

“If we must die, O let us nobly die,/ So that our precious blood may not be shed,” (5-6) expressed by McKay that when we die do it in a peaceful way rather than tragically where we are bleeding to death. Silverstein exclaims, “And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,/ For the children, they mark, and the children, they know/ The place where the sidewalk ends.” (14-16) Choosing these few lines compared to McKay lines is how we should really pass away. We should choose which way we want to go like heaven or hell and tragically or peacefully. Sometimes God makes the decision for us and takes us sooner than everyone thought. He takes us when we are just starting our lives and not when we are old and gray and ready to go to