To an Athlete Dying Young

The poem begins with the highs of fame, as the speaker remembers when the athlete won his “town the race” (Line 1), and the people in the town cheered him on and brought him home “shoulder-high” (Line 4). In Stanza 2, the people in the town bring him home again. This time, it’s in a casket. The athlete’s death, however, isn’t a negative. It allows the runner to “slip betimes away / From fields where glory does not stay” (Lines 9-10). Glory is not sustainable, the poem suggests. Praise and acclaim don’t tend to last long. A person can receive fame at a young age—“early though the laurel grows” (Line 11)—yet “[i]t withers quicker than the rose” (Line 12). Like a flower, a person can bloom and garner compliments and attention. The downside is that flowers shrivel—a person’s time in the limelight is limited; in a moment, it can waste away.

The speaker arguably critiques Western society’s preoccupation with fame through the ironic tone that congratulates the athlete on his choice to die young and “not swell the rout / Of lads that wore their honours out” (Lines 18-19). The speaker’s tongue-in-cheek approval of the athlete’s death draws attention to the harsh demands of celebrity.