Christian Murillo

English 495

Professor Wexler

September 22, 2013

Death and Glory

            There are two lines from A.E. Housman’s cross-rhythm, quatrain poem, “To an Athlete Dying Young” that have always haunted me: “Runner whom renown outran, and the name died before the man” (Smith, 75). These two lines indicate such an awful and melancholy induced state of existence; to push and condition your body beyond the limits of its capabilities to still be outrun by fame and then to watch your name crumple and crumble into dust before your body is ready to give up must be every athletes nightmare. As such, I have always viewed this poem as a lament for all those nameless, faceless runners whose names never endured time; however, after reading Robert Browne’s “Funeral Orator” and E. Christian Kopff’s “Conservatism and Creativity,” I am now rescinded to agree that the poem itself is not meant to be taken as sorrowful but rather as joyous. This is theory is thus demonstrated by two distinct, motivating factors; Browne argues that as Housman purposefully praises the athlete’s death by regarding his choices as “smart,” Housman is therefore indicated that there is pride and glory in an early death. This theory of a glorious death is also indicated and upheld by Kopff’s work which provides us with specific quotes from Housman’s life that affirm his conception of a meaningful end. As such, rather than simply assuming that his poem is a reflection on the melancholy nature of death, it is therefore with regard to Housman’s text and life that we will see that although this poem is about dying, it is anything but a death that is to be mourned, instead it is about a death that should be praised and sung to the heavens; a very welcome death that took the athlete before time could find and diminish his name; this poem is ultimately about a death draped not in the mortician’s cloth but covered under the very fabric of glory.           

            Robert Browne’s “Funeral Orator” imagines this piece not as a poem but as a eulogy to be read over the athlete’s grave as a group of mourners lament his loss (Browne, 134). This is better understood when considering that the first two stanzas are written in narrative form, “The time you won your town the race, We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by…” (Smith, 75) which is also evocative of the Oral Tradition (in terms of telling stories). However, this piece has a “…specific purpose, to persuade him [the athlete] that he is better off dead” (Browne, 134). This is done in part through metaphor, indicated by the phrase “…the road all runners run” which means life and death, or as Housman uses it, as a similarity between running and dying (Browne, 135) because after all, no matter how fast we run, we will all reach the “finish line” one day. Now, the glory and praise aspect of Housman begins with the words “Smart Lad” (Smith, 75). As Browne argues, the athlete is a smart lad because he demonstrates a “cleverness in dying early and avoiding the disadvantages of living too long” (Browne, 136). This is further cemented by the symbols of the rose and the laurel so frequently referenced in the work; the rose and laurel are both known to be beautiful but doomed to live short lives. However, Housman is very blatantly equating the rose and the laurel to the athlete; although both the rose and the athlete died quickly, they lived beautiful lives so their death isn’t so much a loss as it is a triumph. And there in turn he (the athlete) avoids the implicated sorrow of the line “And the name died before the man” because as Browne states, an early death “…offers an incentive to step over the threshold. He will be surrounded by admirers as he was in the first scene; and his laurels…will be forever unwithered” (Browne, 137); unwithered because his record was never tarnished, nor was his name diminished in his lifetime. He died a champion and the mourners will not be left mourning a life wasted but a life of unfulfilled potential ended.

            Browne makes a lot of statements with regards to the nature of the poem itself; however, his claims are further validated by E. Christian Kopff’s piece, “Conservatism and Creativity.” Whereas Browne focused solely on Housman’s work as a guideline, Kopff focused on the man to find reason behind the text. “[The] enduring theme of Housman’s poetry and scholarly prose, is that there is an objective world, which must be lived in despite the fact that it does not answer to human desires, may give a clue to the unity of his life’s work” (Kopff, 231). It can thus be argued that a characteristic human desire is accomplishment or success and as such, the world cannot bend privy the desire of athletes in that eventually, someone will come along and shatter all that you have created through years of training, in a matter of seconds. Therefore, it stands to reason why Housman would praise an athlete dying young; “If a man…after his death, is still remembered [as] a great man, there is a presumption in his favor which no living man can claim” (Kopff, 232). That sentence was taken from Housman’s 1911 Cambridge Inaugural in which is also stated about the “…lack of due veneration towards the dead” (Kopff, 232). Both of these lines therefore validate the central argument presented here; the “due veneration” is addressed in the praise bestowed upon the young athlete’s “choice” to die young, and the “presumption” is that although the athlete’s record may one day be broken, it was not broken in his lifetime and as such, he died before his name which as stated by Housman, is something no one can ever take from him.

            “To an Athlete Dying Young” is therefore not so much melancholy as it is celebration. We, as readers are among the mourners and although our society now tends to lament and to treat the death of one so young (and so successful) as a great loss, Housman would argue otherwise. Housman felt that the “pleasure of the moment is the sole motive for human action” (Kopff, 236) and whether we are racing, or writing or building, ultimately we all derive pleasure from the very moments that life gives us; and while none of us may be willing to concede to the tomb just yet, Housman reflects on the sentiment that death isn’t necessarily an unhappy ending but rather a celebration of a life lived in the pleasure of the moment; a moment that is now enduring beyond our lifetime.

Works Cited

Browne, Robert M. "The Shropshire Lad as Funeral Orator." Quarterly Journal of Speech, 57.2 (1971): 134-139. Electronic.

Kopff, E Christian. "Conservatism and Creativity in A.E. Housman." Modern Age, 47.3 (2005): 229. Electronic.

Smith, Phillip. 100 Best Loved Poems. New York. Dover. 1995. Print.