A. E. Houseman's Ex-Basketball Player

In many modern musical choices, the words, “glory days” seem to appear in multiple places. The glory days, of the time when adults seem to reminisce, can be characterized by their days spent as a high school student and if growing up was an enjoyable thing or not. Two authors exemplify the post high school experiences in a very interesting way. John Updike’s poem, “Ex-Basketball Player” and A.E. Houseman’s poem, “To an Athlete Dying Young” compare and contrast the lives of former high school athletes and how they are affected.
These two poems are similar because of the two pasts the main character share. Both characters grew up in a town that was centered around the ability to play sports. Each town praised their athlete for the accomplishments

they have made. In the poem “To an Athlete Dying Young,” the star athlete was shown through words that he was hoisted up by his town’s arms (Houseman 4). John Updike uses the flashback, “He was good: in fact, the best. In 46’ / He bucketed three hundred ninety points, / A county record still” to interpret the amazing past Flick had lived (Updike 14-16). His skill was tremendous and no one could ever surpass that. Updike goes on to compare Flick’s hands to wild birds in a simile (Updike 18). The use of this simile was to confirm the immense talent of his crafty hands. Both athletes had a similar past, which created a time that each character would record in their brains as “the glory days.” Their lives and the poems are similar, however, the athlete’s lives are contrasted when looked at from the present
Both poems are very different when it comes to how each athlete dealt with their future. Flick, whose hands were once known as, “wild birds” are now completely different in his present day job. Updike juxtaposes the phrase, “His hands are fine and nervous on the lug wrench. / It makes no difference to the lug wrench, though” in order to convey to the audience that Flick has done nothing with his life (Updike 23-24). Flick never learned anything in high school besides basketball, and now he’s using his basketball driven talent to fix cars. This allows the reader to feel a sense of disappointment in Flick. On the other hand, the athlete from, “To an Athlete Dying Young,” he died a very young age. The local town’s people used to hold him on their shoulders when he won, but then Houseman uses repetition to interpret that the town carried him on their shoulders in his coffin (Houseman 6). Since he died at such a young age, the athlete never had to watch his legacy fade away. Houseman states, “And find unwithered on its curls / The garland briefer that a girl’s” in order to explain that the athlete’s legacy was preserved (Houseman 27-28). This vivid imagery gives the reader knowledge that the athlete will forever be remembered and his legacy will always be intact.
Both poems compare and contrast the differences between two former athletes. One decided to not gain knowledge during high school so the rest of his life was spent in the same town, while the other athlete died in the prime of his life so he could not make his mark on the earth. Though both are very different, both poems characterize each athlete's’ many accomplishments while in high school. John Updike and A.E. Houseman did a wonderful job of using their vivid words to paint their audience a picture of their view of a life after an athlete’s glory days.