Poem Analysis

The poem I analyzed is called To an Athlete Dying Young By: A.E Housman

The subject of the poem is about a letter to an athlete dying young. this poem uses some descriptive language but not lots for example “Runners whom renown outran and hold to the low lintel up the still defended challenge cup and round that early laureled head.” This poem tells a story so when you read this poem you can imagine all the memories the athlete has had for example “the time you won your town the race we chaired you through the market place” This quote represents the celebration the athlete and the town had when he or she won the race. This poem has not much figurative language though, it is more of a narrative telling a story.

The tone of this poem is serious but also memorable because it is talking about an athlete dying young but it is also talking about all the good memories the athlete has had like the races he or she won for an example the first line is “The time you won your town the race we chaired you through the market place”. I believe the tone some how changes near the end of the poem, at the beginning it is talking about all the good times and at the end it is talking about the athlete dying and referring to flocks of birds flying away. The writer of this poem uses words like laureled and lintel to describe the cup the athlete won for the race but either then that there is very few descriptive language.

The stanzas of this poem are very short in the first stanza there is an AABB rhyme scheme, and the rhyming end words are race and place, by and high. In the second stanza there is a metaphor for the road which represents the path to death. In total there are seven stanzas in this poem. And there are end rhymes every 2 lines like grows rose shut cut. So this poem does rhyme but its is mostly a narrative telling a story and not really a poem that rhymes every line. Each line in the poem is roughly the same length and this helps the poem with its rhyme scheme.

Overall I think this poem got its message out. I think this poem didn’t really have a lesson to tell its reader but more of a story of a young athlete and all the great times he or she has had but now they are dying. But from reading the poem you can almost imagine that you are the athlete that is dying. This poem has a very sad tone near the end but overall its quite an inspirational poem.