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Death in literature symbolism
Analysis essay of an athlete dying young
Analysis essay of an athlete dying young
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Recommended: Death in literature symbolism
Glory over Long Life
To some people life might be an even trade for fame and recognition. It is in the human nature to desire honor and admiration from society, but can the price of fame exceed the price of life itself? Would one be willing to die at the peak of one 's fame to avoid the chance of losing it? The central theme in Housman’s poem “An Athlete Dying Young” is that it is better to die young and famous than living a long life and losing your fame. The poet uses imagery, personification, and speaker to develop the theme.
Housman uses imagery to develop the theme. The story takes place in the streets of the young athlete’s home town. He is dead in his coffin and is being carried by the town’s people on their shoulders to his grave. The narrator starts by saying “The time you won your town the race we chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, and home we brought you shoulder-high” This quote gives a vivid image of the time when the athlete brought victory home to his people and how the people carried him on their shoulders to his home
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It is obvious to the reader that the speaker and the young athlete have a very close and personal relationship. The speaker describes the athlete as someone he admires. He speaks directly to the athlete congratulating him for dying at top of his game. In the first stanza, the speaker reminds the athlete of the time not too long ago when the young athlete won a race and was carried and celebrated in by the people in his town. Housman uses this to compare it to the present time as the town once again carries the athlete on their shoulders, but now his dead and is being taken to the cemetery. Housman here is saying to the athlete that even though he is now dead, he is still being honored by his people and will be remembered for his accomplishments and for bringing home victory. The speaker also says Now you will not swell the
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
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Many books have talked about the history of the African American athletes, but in In Forty Million Dollar Slaves, William C. Rhoden takes a different approach, filled with poetic brio and passionate argument. Rhoden’s book has received endorsements from such well-known academics as Cornel West and Arnold Rampersad, and the book alludes to music, literature, and religion as well as history and politics. Its intent is as much prophetic as analytical. Rhoden argues that African American athletes are among the most famous and highest remunerated salaried individuals working today, but that doesn’t mean they have control over their own destinies. However, Rhoden is aware that his title, which suggests that even an athlete earning forty million dollars
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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.”
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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.
A. E. Housman published the book A Shropshire Lad in 1896 in which “To an Athlete Dying Young” appears. The poem has seven stanzas written as quatrains. Each quatrain has two couplets that rhyme. In “To an Athlete Dying Young” the rhyming scheme is AABB. This unique style of writing was complemented by the AABB format. This format of the poem gave the feeling of going forward and backwards. As a result of the speaker 's statement of a faded memory and being forgotten really played well providing great imagery to the work that felt surreal to the point made throughout the poem. “To an Athlete Dying Young” presents to the reader the tragedy of
Sport specialization, means to practice and train for only one sport. Some people feel it is better to specialize rather than play multiple sports. There are good and bad that come from being a single sport athlete, but there are good and bad for being a multiple sport athlete.
...an affect how kids do in school with the sports interfering with homework and studying time. Some teenaers focus more on sports than school in some cases while hoping for a sports scholarship. This can hurt their future. With so much focus on practicing with sports, school gets less attention than it needs.
The poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A. E. Housman talks to the winners of important events that get them fame or glory. In the poem, it says “The time you won your town the race. We *chaired you through the marketplace; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we chaired you shoulder-high.” (Housman). In this quote, you is referring to the winner of the race, and this is apparent when it says “The time you won your town the race.” (Housman). In this poem, the winner of the race is not only the winner but also is receiving fame and glory for winning the race for their town. This is understood when the poem reads “We chaired you through the marketplace; Man and boy cheering by, And home we chaired you shoulder-high.” (Housman). This creates imagery of men and boys putting the winner up on top of their shoulders, and the carrying him victoriously through the
The justification of self-worth is often a product of others consciousness’. In the face of mortality, it is not uncommon to want to be noticed by other people when we are gone. Wanting to extend the presence of being known past physical presence, whether in a certain place or in life in general, is important to many people. To be able to matter to someone on a deep level reinforces the pride a person has in their self-value. While Icarus did not have the luxury of being noticed by society, Breugal utilizes this character as a cautionary tale of how even great people can slip away into the abyss of death.