Fleeting Glory

In his poem, “To An Athlete Dying Young,” A.E Housman depicts how achievements made are soon to be forgotten and overshadowed by the accomplishments of others and how it is noticeably better to die at the prime part of life. Subsequently, to acquire the motif of the poem, Housman depicts the composition through many literary and sound devices shown in the poem. The poem Housman wrote was written around “two Boer Wars, which was around the time of 1899” (Ed. Alfred J). Furthermore, the poem was published in the time between World War I and the Boer War the poem gained an abundance of recognition since people viewed the poem as a remembrance of the many young soldiers that succumbed to the wars. Essentially, in “To An Athlete Dying Young,” A.E Housman gained popularity from the poem through his many literary devices, such as; a distinct meter, unique rhyme scheme, alliteration, and metaphors.
Throughout the poem, A.E Housman uses two distinct meters and creates a unique rhyme scheme in order to display an original composition in his work. In Housman’s poem, “To An Athlete Dying Young,” there are two different types of meter in each stanza. Iambic tetrameter is used in the first two lines of each stanza while the third and fourth lines are written in trochaic tetrameter. The reason for Housman using two different types of meter, is so that he is able to achieve the rhyme scheme of AA BB. In addition to utilizing a complex meter and rhyme scheme, Housman also “uses alliteration” (Poetry) in order to show more images additional to the images created by the rhyme scheme and meter. Moreover, Housman created imagery by creating forms of alliteration, which are portrayed throughout the poem. Also, in addition to the meter and rhyme scheme, Housman uses multiple figures of speech in his poem to portray the theme of glory and how it is evanescent in one’s lifetime. Moreover, as a result of the intricate sound details and figures of speech drawn in the poem, A.E Housman is...