Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 19. TO AN ATHLETE DYING YOUNG, by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The time you won your town the race Last Line: The garland briefer than a girl's. Alternate Author Name(s): Housman, A. E. Variant Title(s): A Shropshire Lad: 19 Subject(s): Athletes; Death; Dead, The | ||||||||
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. To-day, the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town. Smart lad, to slip betimes away From fields where glory does not stay And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose. Eyes the shady night has shut Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears: Now you will not swell the rout Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man. 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. And round that early-laurelled head Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl's. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 1. 1887 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN |
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