To An Athlete Dying Young By A

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"shoulder-high" he connects the race to the funeral procession. The honor of this treatment was endowed the first time for victory, and the final time for homage. The "threshold" symbolizes the grave of the athlete, his entry into the afterlife.
The ironic tone of the poem becomes forlorn, almost envious as the speaker ponders upon his own past. Satire presents itself in the line "Smart lad, to slip bedtimes away; From fields where glory does not stay". Here Housman expresses that the athlete was in a way lucky to miss watching himself slip from fame, becoming again just another face in the crowd. He implies that he himself experienced the fate of watching his glories die.
"And early though the laurel grows; it withers quicker than the rose". This couplet reflects on the fleeting existence of glory. The laurel represents accomplishments, and the rose life. It is simply saying that although the athlete's glory came early in life, it will not remain memorable in the eyes of ...

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