To an Athlete Dying Young - A E Housman

To an Athlete Dying Young – A.E. Housman

The time you won your town the race

We chaired you through the market-place;

Man and boy stood cheering by,

And home we brought you shoulder-high.

Today, the road all runners come,

Shoulder-high we bring you home,

And set you at your threshold down,

Townsman of a stiller town.

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.

Eyes the shady night has shut

Cannot see the record cut,

And silence sounds no worse than cheers

After earth has stopped the ears.

Now you will not swell the rout

Of lads that wore their honours out,

Runners whom renown outran

And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,

The fleet foot on the sill of shade,

And hold to the low lintel up

The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head

Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,

And find un-withered on its curls

The garland briefer than a girl’s.

The Poet A. E. Housman begins his poem grieving over the death of a young athlete who had been taken around in procession for winning his town running race competition. He regrets for the death of such a man. He becomes reflective and feels sad for the young man. The glory earned by the small success / attainment of victory does not stay for long. It fades away quickly. The laurel (shrub) though grows early / quickly, withers quicker than the rose. Note the pun on the word 'laurel' which also a means of a prize / an emblem for the victorious.

The poet turns metaphorical at this stage. The laurel symbolises the short life of human achievements / attainments. The rose symbolises the immortality or the fame or the glory of man surviving in his death.

Human life is full of struggle. The competitors / rivals strive to achieve victories at different levels of races. If the achiever loses sight of his covetous challenge cup and lies leisurely then he faces defeat. His name dies out from the list of achievers

The same holds good for all the achievers in their lives. Human beings will have to strive hard to be in the race all through their lives. Out of race would mean defeat / death. Thus, a racer losing his position in the race faces a death before his actual death.

The excellence achieved at the higher level will have strength to make a person to live on even beyond his death. The implication is that the laurel of life is shorter than that of the rose.

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