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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that, first of all, summarizes and analyzes this poem by A.E. Housman. "To An Athlete Dying Young" offers an interesting perspective on a life cut short by tragedy. It begins by picturing the most glorious moment of a young man's life, as a crowd cheers him as their hero, having just won a great race. Then, the poet argues that due to the fleeting nature of fame and glory, the lad is fortunate to have his life end at its apex, rather than suffer through a slow decline in which he witnesses his youthful glory fade. Then, the writer discusses how Housman might have perceived the death of Gatsby in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khathgat.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
moment of a young mans life, as a crowd cheers him as their hero, having just won a great race. Then, the poet argues that due to the fleeting nature
of fame and glory, the lad is fortunate to have his life end at its apex, rather than suffer through a slow decline in which he witnesses his youthful glory
fade. The poem consists of seven quatrains, each containing two rhyming couplets. The first two stanzas set the stage for the poet to discuss his viewpoint on the tragedy
of the young athlete dying young. In the first stanza, he addresses the deceased athlete directly, reminding him of "The time you won your town the race/We chaired you through
the market-place" (lines 1-2). Carrying the young man on a chair, everyone cheered him. Obviously this would have been a high point in the young mans life. The second stanza
contrasts sharply with the exuberance of the first as it also pictures the young man being carried "Shoulder-high" through the town but, this time, it is because he has completed
the "road all runners come" (i.e., life itself) (lines 5-6). He has been brought home to a "stiller town" (line 8). This stanza makes it clear that the young man
has died. Beginning in the third stanza, the poet discusses the death and again addresses the deceased directly. He says the young man was "smart" to "slip betimes away/From fields
where glory does not stay" (lines 9-10). In the next line, the poet refers to the "laurel" (line 11). In ancient Greece and Rome, heroes were crowned with a wreath
of laurel leaves, which the poet tells us "withers quicker than the rose" (lines 12). In other words, this stanza concentrates on the images on that show that fame and
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