To An Athlete Dying Young Summary

In A. E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young”, the author explores the idea of dying young, but still being remembered by those who live on by using the honor and pride of young athletes as a familiar setting. Dying with a name worth remembering is seen as favorable to outliving a person’s honor.

Glory is hard to obtain, and once it has been obtained, it quickly begins to fade away. The first two stanzas of the poem reminisce about the “glory days” of an athlete’s life, such as being carried around town in celebration after winning a race. These stanzas set the stage for the rest of the poem, as it shows the fame and stardom of the life this athlete lived. Housman uses the line “From fields where glory does not stay” to show the reader

that most athletes did not get to keep their glory as they aged, as they left to metaphorical “fields”, or other places and lives. Glory is represented by a laurel -- which is often seen as a symbol of victory -- in the third stanza: “And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose”. The laurel growing early represents the youthfulness in victory, but it is quick to fade away. Putting these two ideas gives rise to the new idea that glory can easily die out before the person does. Along with this, a person’s glory can be used up before they he dies. Housman speaks “Of lads that wore their honors out, / Runners whom renown outran / and the name died before the man”. These people once had honor and glory, but did not think that it would go away one day. They were once the talk of the town, yet when their days of being an athlete ended, they simply disappeared back into the masses.
Dying does not mark the end of honor and glory for the privileged few who take hold of it early in their life.

In the sixth stanza the poem reads: “So set, before its echoes fade, / The fleet foot on the sill of shade, / And hold to the low lintel up / The still-defended challenge-cup”. This stanza describes the final moments of a young athlete’s time, as he is set down in his grave. The “echoes” represent his relevance in the town, like the echoes of those who are talking about him. This athlete is being set down on the “sill of shade”, which is his final resting place. The idea of dark imagery is prevalent in other parts of the poem as well. The “still-defended challenge-cup” symbolizes how this athlete is leaving behind a legacy to be remembered by. This life -- dying young with a reason to be remembered -- is shown as far better than living to watch honor and glory fade away from a past life being held on to. Dying a champion does have some downsides, as told in the fourth stanza: “Eyes the shady night has shut / Cannot see the record cut, / And silence sounds no worse than cheers / After earth has stopped the ears”. Death -- being represented by the “shady night” -- stops an athlete’s life where it once was. The silence that the athlete experiences in death means that he will no longer hear the cheers of the crowds that once flocked to see him; however, his status is now set in stone, and he will never have to hear any booing crowds in his later years. Finally in

the last stanza, a garland is placed at the grave of the deceased athlete which represents the life and presence of this athlete in the mortal world. The garland is described as “unwithered on its curls” to show that even though he is dead, the spirit of victory and glory live on for eternity just as it had when the athlete was alive.
The poem’s title “To an Athlete Dying Young” may seem straightforward, yet the poem follows an athlete to the end of his life to show that dying with your honor is not so bad. The poem’s title makes the poem an open letter to not just all athletes, but all people, showing them that an early death does not necessarily mean that a person’s spirit and memory can’t live on past his body’s life.