Many people's dreams include being a large sports star and constantly being within the spotlight. Whether it is to get the winning touchdown or break the new record, most people dream of these special moments where the crowd goes wild with cheers. Most people picture themselves getting the overall credibility for their achievements. What happens, though, when it all comes crashing down you lose your abilities or you lose your place within the madness. A.E. Housman was raised under harsh discipline, but when it came to the gentle regret of someone losing their fame he was able to address the issue. A.E Housman wrote a poem entitled To an Athlete Dying Young, within this poem he addressed three key messages it is better to die young while you are famous rather than to die old, glory fades with age, and it is better to die before you can witness your records being beaten by someone else. …show more content…
Within the poem To an Athlete Dying Young, Housman proposes the question of whether it is better to die young while you are famous or die old once you have lost your glory.
If you die young while you are still famous you would not have to sit around and watch your glory fade. If there would to be a chance of you dying young before you lost your glory, then you would die with the glory you have. “Smart lad, to slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay” (lines 9 and 10). With that being said, it discusses the fact because of this young kid's death at a young age. Now that he is gone, everyone will praise him for being gone and having accomplished all the things that he had done while he was young and
alive. Equally important Bronte addresses the fact that al glory will fade with age. A lot of people come to the homecoming game. Is it for the pep rally, the reason to dress up, or simply just the football game? The whole meaning of a homecoming game is so that all the ex players of the football team come home to watch the new football team play the game. But, when you are at that game and they ask everyone to stand up that has previously been a football player or a student of Worland High School, you begin to question yourself. You see a man stand up that was aged greatly and he was the star quarterback in his time, but of course you didn't know that because no one talks about them anymore. ” And early though the laurel grows, it withers quicker than the rose” (lines 11 and 12). This shows that even in time the fame fades with little to no remembrance of what had happened in the past. It comes to show little to no achievement to the person that worked so hard to get the glory. Last but not least, To an Athlete Dying Young states that maybe it could be better to die young than to witness your records broken. For all of those athletes that spend many days and many nights practicing hard so they can get the record. Each day is harder each day is another trial and each day is another competition. Each event is another chance to reach out once you get that record and you feel like you are on top of the world. But, how long will you be on top of the world how long will it be till someone comes over and breaks your record? “Eyes the shady night has shut, cannot see the record cut” (lines 13 and 14). Would it be better to die and hold your record and your fame or would it be more suiting to be dead and not witness it? To conclude, is it better to die in vein or better to die young? The best thing for you may be simply dying while you're young and keeping all of your glory. Could it better to die simply so you do not have to live through the time of your glory fading? Is it possible that dying young would be easier to take than watching someone beat the records that you worked insanely hard for? Bronte discussed the possibility of an athlete dying young being potentially a good thing.
There can be no question that sport and athletes seem to be considered less than worthy subjects for writers of serious fiction, an odd fact considering how deeply ingrained in North American culture sport is, and how obviously and passionately North Americans care about it as participants and spectators. In this society of diverse peoples of greatly varying interests, tastes, and beliefs, no experience is as universal as playing or watching sports, and so it is simply perplexing how little adult fiction is written on the subject, not to mention how lightly regarded that little which is written seems to be. It should all be quite to the contrary; that our fascination and familiarity with sport makes it a most advantageous subject for the skilled writer of fiction is amply demonstrated by Mark Harris.
Rick Reilly, in his ESPN column (2007), contends that sports competitions are more than simple games, instead, they are events capable of bringing people together in unique ways. He reinforces his contention by integrating inspirational anecdotal evidence, bold syntax, and unvarnished diction. Reilly’s purpose is to point out the importance and humanity of sports in order to convince a college professor and readers of sports magazines that sports writing is indeed an advanced and valuable profession. He assumes a humorous tone (“...most important- sports is the place where beer tastes best”) for an audience of sports magazine readers, but more specifically, a professor that told him that he was “better than sports.”
In David Foster Wallace’s essay, “How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart,” he argues that the true talent of star athletes is to completely engross themselves in playing the game. While worshipping the “abstractions like power and grace and control” of Tracy Austin, he notes the contradicting quality, her inability to articulate such abstracts (143). He continues by writing, as people’s expectation while reading the autobiography of a successful athlete is to take a peek at the secrets of their god given gifts, whereas the expectations are rarely met, making spectators, such as himself, disappointed. As a matter of fact, Wallace suspects that the exceptional talent of athletes may be brought out by their apathetic and ignorant nature when it
Remember that boy in high school that was the star of the basketball team? He still holds most of the records for the team. He scored more points than anyone else in the school’s history. He never studied much because he was an athlete. His basketball skills were going to take him places. But high school ended and there are no more games to be played. Where is that former all-star now? In his poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” John Updike examines the life of a former high school basketball star. Flick Webb was a local hero, and he loved basketball. He never studied much in school or learned a trade because he was a talented athlete. Now years later, the only job Flick can find is working at the local gas station. He used to be a star, but now he just “sells gas, checks oil, and changes flats” (19-20). The purpose of Updike’s poem is to convince the reader that athletes should also focus on getting a good education.
Williams, Peter. The sports immortals: deifying the American athlete. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994.. 30-31
Most student-athletes grow up as very innocent lads bedecked with tremendous talents and become very promising in sports. Thus, they become rays of hope for their families, neighborhoods, and schools yet to be determined. Like the lamb in William Blake’s poem The Lamb, they are fed “by the stream & o’er the mead; gave…clothing of delight, softest clothing, wooly, bright…making all the vales rejoice.” (Smith 24) Then they are exposed to the life of hard work in which only the fittest survives. This makes them ready for the different challenges in the sports scene.
The speakers in A. E. Housman poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” and Edward Arlington Robinson poem “Richard Cory” serve different purposes but uses irony and rhyme to help convey their message. In “To an Athlete Dying Young” the speaker’s purpose is to show the audience dying young with glory is more memorable than dying old with glory. In “Richard Cory” the speaker’s purpose is to show the audience “you can’t judge a book by its cover.”
A change from a self-determined engagement in a sport to a much lesser degree of self-determination is a common theme among athletes’ burning out. In other words, as the true passion and love for the game fades away, the perceived costs of sustained engagement begin to outweigh the rewards afforded by the sport. After time passes, the inability to handle the negative appraisals can lead to such harmful outcomes as physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, devaluation, and then complete dropout of the sport (Holmberg and Sheridan,
A. E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young," also known as Lyric XIX in A
The speaker addresses three advantages to dying young in To an Athlete Dying Young, by A. E. Houseman, these are an athlete’s glory fading, records broken, and being forgotten. After the athlete’s death, the speaker states that the athlete was right to leave “fields where glory does not stay” (10). Moreover, the speaker implies that the athlete is lucky because he will never live to see the glory of his achievements fade away. Similarly, following the athlete’s burial the speaker states that the athlete “Cannot see the record cut” (14). Furthermore, the speaker implies that an early death is to the athlete’s advantage because he will never see his records and achievements beaten by another athlete. Lastly, the speaker states that the athlete
A superb author will immortalize with his or her works no matter how old. In the poem "Betting on the Muse" written by Charles Bukowski, Jimmy Foxx and Beau Jack were splendid athletes and had millions of followers when they are young and energetic. Athletes like them will become very popular after winning the competitions and they will find themselves on "the yellowing/ pages"(stanza 2) with victorious smile. Moreover, they are living like a king who can have as much as parties they want and be surrounded by beautiful young girls. However, as their ages rise up, they become obtuse and useless; they cannot bring honours for their countries anymore. Then they will be "replaced by others" and "no longer be/ recognized"; some of them will end
Sports have become one of the most dominant elements in society. Today sports are an integral part of lifestyle, entertainment and leisure. Sports have become an outlet for success and prestige. The recurring emphasis on sports appears in both Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s Fences. While Death of a Salesman portrays sports as a means to popularity and subsequent success, Fences portrays sports negatively, discouraging sports, in spite of an unmistakable talent.
The history of sports goes back since ancient times. It has been a useful way for people to explore nature and their environment. Sports include different activities and games such as football, soccer, basketball, and etc. to express their skills and talents. Also, sports are a way to relax and have fun; but are sports all our African Americans rely on? The dream to become future sports stars. The reason why Gates begins his essay with an anecdote is to show and compare how many african-american athletes were at work today and how little the chances of African-Americans becoming athletes are compared to being a lawyer, dentist, or even a doctor. African-Americans assume that they are born athletes and it’s because the school system doesn’t teach them reality and educate them to undertake more realistic goals for careers.
Sport is among the most beneficial influences on humankind. While sport may illuminate some of man’s less admirable traits, it concurrently brings out man’s commendable qualities and it is these praiseworthy qualities that should be noted rather than man’s innate imperfections. Irrevocably, sport promotes competitiveness and aggression but so too does it inspire pride, hope, love, passion and community. These positive virtues are expressed by the masses as a unified group, excited and enthused. And in exuding these virtues as a united front they are imparted onto others, penetrating the monotony and strife that inhibits the world. King David Linksfield was witness to this in 2011 upon the first team rugby boys winning the rugby finals. While the victory was exhilarating, it was the love, brotherhood, pride and joy generated by this triumph that reverberated through the school for days to follow. It was the win that unified the school and was testimony to sport’s capacity to bring out the best in people.
Success goes hand in hand with failure. “You win some, you lose some” is a famous quote which epitomises one of the main core’s of life as these two components are apart of every human being’s daily life. In the same way, they are a part of every sporting event. In life everyone strives for success, yet not always do we attain success instantly, often it requires many failures before success can be achieved. Humphrey asserts that sport ‘brings out the worst in people’, and yes, it is within failure where the worst is brought out of people as many people hate the feeling of failure. However, no matter what one fails at, they will always express their bad side, for example: when one fails at their job, when one fails their license and so on. Sports is the best opportunity for people to learn the benefits and necessity of failure, thus allowing their outlook on failure to be change which in turn corrects the behaviour that comes with failure. Sports also allows one to feel the sense of accomplishment that emanates with success. It therefore teaches the sportsmen how to cope better wit...