A. E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young” is what may be called a “consistent” poem. It has a message to convey, the message is directed to the athlete of the title, and the poem is itself a variation on congratulations to any athlete who performs well. This element is not contained in any specific imagery; it is the tone of the poem itself, but it works to reinforce the identity of the hero as an athlete. The poet is not cheering the dead boy, but everything he says to him reflects a sense of accomplishment, just as any man would express admiration to a competing boy who wins. This tone is established by the second stanza, as Housman transfers the image of carrying the hero after one victory to carrying him to what the poet perceives as another: “Today, the road all runners come,/ Shoulder-high we bring you home�(ll 5-6). Consequently, Housman’s tone emphasizes the identity of the hero as an athlete.
On a more literal level, Housman makes it clear that the dead boy was a certain type of athlete, or at least was most known as such: a runner. The references are blatant, and begin with the opening line: 典he time you won your town the race�(1). The second stanza, while starkly contrasting the action of the first, underscores the particular athletic skill of the boy because he is now being carried on the road 殿ll runners�come. That Housman chooses to identify all humanity with the boy’s form of athletics is understandable; humanity forever races just as athletes of this kind do. Nonetheless, the point is still reiterated that the hero was a runner, if one in the end no different than other men. Even near the close there is the direct reference to the boy’s 吐leet foot,�now at its final rest.
These specifics aside, Housman adds a great deal of external imagery to his athlete, in a sense presenting what athletics translate to for all who watch and applaud. The opening contrast, for example, relies on the admiration of others who carry the hero in triumph after winning a race, in order to set up the very different carrying to the grave. Then, there are references to the general love or awe felt for such an athlete, and of a poetic nature themselves. The 吐ields where glory does not stay�(10) are still fields of glory for the living who win. The regard for the athlete is nearly classical as well: 摘arly though the laurel grows/ It withers quicker than the rose�(ll 11-12); just as fields of the race are glorious, the winner is crowned with laurel. This is then the athlete as the most 殿live�and fortunate of people.
That the athlete is then such a glorification of life is necessary for Housman’s ironic use of athletics as life at its best and inevitably lost. What awaits even this best form of life is loss, and:
Eyes the shady night has shut/ Cannot see the record cut�(ll 13-14). This is imagery suggesting a better end than witnessing decay and being replaced in the 途ace�by those better, which translates to all people aging and seeing the young glory in living as they cannot. Housman is in fact direct about this reality: Now you will not swell the rout/ Of lads that wore their honours out�(ll 17-18). This is his consolation to the dead athlete, and it is expressed as a triumph in itself.
Even at the poem’s close, there is the insistent and consistent emphasis on the athlete as now freed from further contests and consequently eternally a winner. Forever now, admirers of the athlete will visit the where the boy rests: 鄭nd find unwithered on its curls/ The garland briefer than a girl痴�(ll 27-28). The athlete lives on as a champion with a laurel crown, and this final imagery condenses Housman’s ultimate meaning. To be an athlete is to live in the fullest way, to be cheered, and to be vibrant and loved. However, to live on must mean only loss brought by the course of life itself. It is then better for the athlete, the 澱est�of life, to pass away before a more tragic and slow end begins to come.
