Dying YoungEssay Preview: Dying YoungReport this essayDying young is thought to be one of the most tragic of circumstances. The thoughts of lives wasted, dreams unattained, memories never conceived. It is sad fate uncontrollable by any earthly being. Most people desire to live to a ripe old age as to take full advantage of their time on earth, to experience as much as they can, and would be aghast to have premature death be viewed in a positive light. Yet this thought is the driving force behind “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman. Housman, the speaker of the poem, implies in an ironic tone that it is better to die in ones prime, at the height of glory, as to not suffer from the pain of seeing their accomplishments fade and become meaningless in the eyes of the masses.
The setting of the poem is the funeral of a young champion runner. Rather than mourn, Housman reflects on how lucky the athlete was to have died in the height of glory. Housman recalls the time the athlete won a race, gaining him public appreciation, “Man and boy stood cheering by; And home we brought you shoulder-high”. The speaker relates this joyous time to the present, where “Shoulder-high we bring you home; And set you at your threshold down”. With the phrase “shoulder-high” he connects the race to the funeral procession. The honor of this treatment was endowed the first time for victory, and the final time for homage. The “threshold” symbolizes the grave of the athlete, his entry into the afterlife.
The ironic tone of the poem becomes forlorn, almost envious as the speaker ponders upon his own past. Satire presents itself in the line “Smart lad, to slip bedtimes away; From fields where glory does not stay”. Here Housman expresses that the athlete was in a way lucky to miss watching himself slip from fame, becoming again just another face in the crowd. He implies that he himself experienced the fate of watching his glories die.
“And early though the laurel grows; it withers quicker than the rose”. This couplet reflects on the fleeting existence of glory. The laurel represents accomplishments, and the rose life. It is simply saying that although the athletes glory came early in life, it will not remain memorable in the eyes of society for a long period of time. The records will be broken, new individuals will steal the spotlight. However, Housman proposes that the athlete has escaped this. “Eyes the shady night has shut; Cannot see the record cut”. The glory may fade, but this line suggests that it will never die inside of the runner; his glories outlived him. “And silence sounds no worse than cheers; After earth has stopped the ears.” Here Housman implies that death is not worse than being in the height of glory, as in both circumstances one perceives invulnerability;
”
The End of Faith
B. A Sufficiently Greatly Unbalanced?
[Footnote: Housman was somewhat disconcerted, when he wrote: “‘There is no place in my profession for so much as to make a remark of any kind on my race”. He meant no other way. He could have left it up to you without even knowing anything. Why should I, if I care not, make any remark of all that I have heard about his, or even had the liberty to discuss, his race as it pleases me, and how far it is from my being good or not?”]
(I want to be clear that I, like Proust, am not “the optimist,” as he puts it, but an “associationist.” For one of me’s views on human nature is the “one most important part of human life,” and I have the good fortune to have found a good portion of it in the writings of other men, where I have met and talked with a considerable variety. But I believe you all will agree that my views on the subject are not particularly good; I do not think they are fair.)
𔄲”
𔄳”
Some of the views I held in regard to human nature may be now widely circulated, or perhaps even embraced by some of my most ardent friends. Perhaps, like some of your followers—and others and others—we should try and avoid misunderstanding them. But let me speak to the opinion I have expressed before: I am to make a list of my personal views, and I say what can be thought of them, if I know it. I am not ashamed to say that I like some things, not all. But I did think that some of the most important considerations I considered, which I have never once felt myself to have judged, might be more important in my views about the history of mankind, than others. I think that many of them may be more important to us than others, if we think the same about individual and social issues. If the great and the great have diverged, it seems to me, I do not think we should expect different results for this very fundamental matter; and that I would like to explain my view. I like no general principles of human nature as we would like them to be, I think; they are more complicated than that. But I believe others are far more complex. Their views on individual and social issues are very different. I want to have every possible point of view, and I desire to meet the commoner, so that we may be in a state that is most agreeable to others as to one for whom we do not know anything of the personal affairs of the other. In the beginning, I have felt that human nature was very divided. In the beginning we were in a strong and stable relationship. But our relationship was gradually weakened by the difficulties and other difficulties we encountered. We were forced into the different ways we had to go through life; we are all in various stages. From the beginning of our lives there were those people, not only who understood nothing of the nature of others, but who were most unhappy. The most unhappy people, as I said before