Housman's "To An Athlete Dying Young"

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somber procession. The athlete is being
carried to his grave. In Leggett's opinion, "The parallels between this
procession and the former triumph are carefully drawn" (54). The reader
should see that Housman makes another reference to "shoulders" as an
allusion to connect the first two stanzas:

Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder high we bring you home,
And set you at the threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town. (967)

In stanza three Housman describes the laurel growing "early" yet dying
"quicker than a rose." (967) This parallels "the 'smart lad' who chose to
'slip betimes away' at the height of his fame" (Explicator 188). Leggett's
implication of this parallel is "that death, too is a victory" (54). He
should consider himself lucky that he died in his prime and will not out
live his fame. Housman says:

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than ...

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A good
example is that barely a word contained in "To an Athlete Dying Young"
consists of more than two syllables. Because of Latin emulation, many hold
Housmans' works to be too easy. As Batesman notices, "English
monosyllables, on the other hand, because of their familiarity and trivial
associations, tend to vulgarize and sentimentize whatever experience they
are trying to describe" (144). Housman's attempt to reproduce a Latin-
patterned verse posts the problem Dr. Samuel Johnson referred to in his
"Life of Dryden":

Words too familiar or too remote defeat the
purpose of a poet. From sound which we hear on
small or coarse occasions we do not easily ...

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