Analysis of To an Athlete Dying Young - Assignment Example

Analysis of "To an Athlete Dying Young" Literary analysis of any poem necessitates a thorough understanding of the various tones, imageries, sounds, word choices and symbols employed in the poem and in fact, it is the appropriate use of these literary devices that add to the charm and appreciation of the poem. While the tone and voice of the poem reveal the mood of the speaker in the poem, the choice of diction, imageries, sounds and symbols in the poem provide clues to a deeper understanding of the poem. This paper seeks to analyse "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman in terms of the tones, word choice, imageries, sounds and symbols employed in it. The Tone of the Poem The voice and tone of a poem’s narrator provide a better picture of what the narrator wants to convey to his readers. The tone of the poem communicates to the reader “how the speaker feels about himself or herself” and in fact the tone of the poem convinces the readers of the attitude with which one needs to approach the poem (Chapter 2: Listening to a Voice 19). In order to grasp the tone of the poem, the reader needs to pay attention to the various suggestions or indicators of the tone in a poem and such indicators include understanding of the speaker or persona in the poem, the choice of words, use of various phrases, repetitions, ironies (verbal irony, dramatic irony, and sarcasm), understatements, overstatements, and the various figures of speech employed in the poem. As any reader expects, the poem "To an Athlete Dying Young" echoes the sad poignant tone of the narrator/speaker as he is talking about the death of a youth. The reader can clearly understand that the speaker of the poem is a persona of the author, a fictitious character (most probably an elderly person who has seen the victorious procession of the athlete, his funeral procession and who finally makes some philosophical broodings over the unexpected phenomenon of death). However, one comes across myriads of tones in the poem. In the first stanza, the poem starts with a tone of pride and happiness where the speaker elaborates on the past accomplishments of the athlete and his celebrations over his achievements. Expressions such as “won the race”, “cheering by” and “shoulder-high” suggest the achievement of the athlete and the subsequent reception offered to him. However, from the second stanza onwards the tone of the poem shifts to that of a depressing one where the speaker is sad and depressed at the contrasting funeral procession of the athlete. The repetitive use of the phrase ‘shoulder-high’ is quite ironic here as it refers to the funeral procession-a transition from triumph to tragedy. The melancholic tone of the second stanza gives way to a solemn tone when the speaker generalizes that “glory does not stay” and that “it withers quicker than the rose”. In the final stanzas of the poem the tone of the poem becomes all the more dreary and depressing where the speaker’s voice echoes the uncertainty of life and death, the things left undone and unfinished by the athlete. In the final stanza, the speaker’s tone is filled with the hope that the athlete youth will be admired and honoured in the world of the dead where will be offered fresh garlands. The Word Choice in the poem Choice of the appropriate words in poetry is so important that poets take great pains to find the right word. An effective poet is able to make use of words that suggests both connotations and denotations. “Poets often strive for words that point to physical details and solid objects” even when they are speaking about abstract ideas (Chapter 3: Word Choice and Word Order 49). On the other hand, there are poets who make use of concrete words that can be immediately perceived with the senses of the reader; there are also poets who employ allusions, rural diction, dialogues, colloquial and formal English, and specific dialects in their poems. In “To an Athlete Dying Young" one can come across both concrete and abstract diction. The first two stanzas make use of concrete diction whereby the reader can feel both the processions of the athlete. Expressions such as ‘won the race’, ‘chaired’, ‘market-place’ and ‘shoulder-high’ bring concrete images to the minds of the reader. There are also rural diction in the poem; diction such as ‘fields’, ‘laurel’, ‘withers’, and ‘rose’ offer a rural background to the setting of the poem. Instances for abstract diction include ‘silence’, ‘night’, and ‘echoes’. Thus, it can be concluded that the choice of words in the poem aptly suit the setting and tone of the poem. Imagery In poetry, images refer to “a word or sequence of words that refers to any sensory experience” and there can be visual imageries, auditory imageries, and tactile imageries (Chapter 5: Imagery 84). The images in a poem add to the beauty of the poem as it enhances the sensory experiences of the reader. A variety of visual imageries dominate the poem. The first two stanzas offer the reader the visual images of the athlete being carried on ‘shoulder-high’, first during his victory march and later on his funeral procession. The images of the growth of the ‘laurel’ and its withering away in the third stanza bring tactile imageries to the imagination of the reader. Theses imageries are brought to the reader in lines such as “And early through the laurel grows/it withers quicker than a rose”. In the same way, images such as ‘shady night’, earth stopping the ears, fading echoes, and unwithered garlands enhance the sensory perception of the poem in the minds of the reader. Sound Poetry becomes rhythmical and musical because of the sound techniques that are at work in the verse. Poetry must not only appeals to the heart; it should also appeal to the ears of the reader through the right combination of consonant and vowel sounds. Poems should euphony, the harmony of sounds, rather than cacophony. Another effective sound effect employed by the poets is onomatopoeia, “an attempt to represent a thing or action by a word that imitates the sound associated with it” (Chapter 8: Sound 146). Alliteration (repetition of the same consonant sound), assonance (repetition of the same vowel sound), and rhymes are very commonly used by the poets to bring about sound effects in the poem. The poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” is abundant with a variety of rimes. The use of end rhymes at the end of each line enhances the musical element of the poem. Thus, one comes across a series of rhyming pairs such as race-place, by-high, come-home, town-down, away-stay etc in the poem. The rhyme scheme of the poem is aabb ccdd eeff gghh iijj kkll mmnn which clearly suggest that the last words of the first two lines and the last two lines of each stanza of the poem rhyme each other. In the third stanza of the poem one can notice a number of examples for alliteration. In the third line of the stanza, the first sounds of ‘though’ and ‘the’ alliterate and in the next line the same consonant sound occurs in the first sounds of words such as ‘than’ and ‘the’. Other instances for alliteration are “silence sounds”, “from fields”, “so set”, and “fleet foot”. Words such as ‘race’, ‘sounds’, ‘silence’, ‘echoes’ and ‘curls’ are capable of offering the effect of onomatopoeia in the poem. Similarly, one can find that many of the lines in the poem are in iambic tetrameter, having four feet that each consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The opening two lines of the poem are the best example for the use of iambic tetrameter in the poem. To sum up, it can be stated that the poem’s rhythmic quality stems mostly from its use of various sound techniques as mentioned above. Symbol The effective use of symbols in poems provides an additional meaning to the poem rather than its peripheral meaning. Great poets move away from conventional symbols and employ specific symbols that will lead the reader from “a visible object to something too vast to be perceived” in their poetry (Chapter 12: Symbol 227). To be precise symbols in poetry suggest, evoke and manifest a greater depth of meaning. In the poem, the most powerful symbols used are the laurels and the rose. While the laurels symbolise victory and championship, the withering rose symbolise the average life span of a human being and the certainty of one’s life. Thus, having gone through the tones, word choice, imageries, sounds and symbols employed in "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman, one can come to the conclusion that it is the understanding of these literary devices that make the poem rich and facilitate its appreciation. Works Cited Chapter 2: Listening to a Voice Chapter 3: Word Choice and Word Order Chapter 5: Imagery Chapter 8: Sound Chapter 12: Symbol Read More