To an Athlete Dying Young ‘ by A. E. Housman

Read the following poem ‘To an Athlete Dying Young ‘ by A. E. Housman. Then create your own first impression questions.

 In a study of Housman’s poem ‘To An Athlete Dying Young’, discuss how the mood and tone of the first and second stanzas is vastly different while the literal dramatic images presented are extremely similar. What has happened with the transition from stanza one to two? Looking at the first line of the third stanza, the entire message of the text becomes quite clear when a single word is replaced. As you look at all of the commentary and opinions that follows, what word could you use as a synonym for “smart”(9) in this specific context? Fully explain your argument. Given the subject matter of the poem, what purpose does the first stanza serve? How and why would the poem have a different impact if the first stanza were not present? How and why does the following line encapsulate the message of the text in its entirety: “And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose”(11-12)? How and why does this specific imagery resonate directly to the profession of the title character? Finally, what is the purpose of the final stanza of the poem?