Andrew's Wiki
Athlete Dying

To an Athlete Dying Young 1896

Content

• The triumphant athlete is brought home for his death
• Good thing: you might as well die when your achievement is so near, you won’t have to outlive your victory
  • When you’re dead you don’t know when someone else beat your record
  • Victory not the same thing as memory or heritage

Form

• 7 verses of 4 lines w/ 4 stresses per line
• aabb, ccdd rhyme scheme
• “the name died before the man” (that’s the tragedy this guy will miss)
• Alternation of smooth continuity and abrupt interruption: each verse has at least one line beginning with “And;” also we have no classic caesura (ie at the middle of the line)
  • But then you have three times a verse beginning then pausing only 2 syllables in: you have “sighs” embedded into the poem, how cute
  • Most often the “And” is on 3rd line: and this is the halfway point of the poem where you’d usually have a break of some sort (form or content)