To An Athlete Dying Young, by A.E. Houseman and
Crossing The Bar, by Lord Alfred Tennyson
by Barry Wright
Essay: To An Athlete Dying Young, by A.E. Houseman and Crossing The Bar, by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Pages: 10
Rating: 3 stars
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“To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Houseman and “Crossing The Bar” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson are poems that
very similar to each other yet so different. “To An Athlete Dying Young” is about an athlete who dies young and
Houseman congratulates him because people will remember him forever. “Crossing the Bar” is about Tennyson
realizing that he is about to die and he accepts his fate. Both poems have a similar theme of death. Both authors
make clever uses of symbols such as, in “To An Athlete Dying Young,” Tennyson uses a laurel plant, and a rose
plant to symbolize the athlete’s accomplishments. In “Crossing the Bar”, Tennyson uses the sandbar to symbolize
the crossing over. However, the rhyme scheme of these poems is different. Houseman writes in the traditional
AABB rhyme scheme and Tennyson writes in the ABAB rhyme scheme. Both poems have a similar view of death,
they also have similar uses of symbols, but differ in rhyme schemes.
Both poems have a propitious view of the theme of death. In “To An Athlete Dying Young” Houseman praises the
young athlete for dying relatively young. He says “smart lad…not stay (9-10).” Houseman tells the athlete that he
was smart to die at a young age because he can no longer witness his glory fade away as he gets older. His
interpretation of death is very ironic. Many people consider it a tragedy when an athlete dies young because the
athlete cannot further his career anymore, but Houseman argues that an athlete should not further his career
because once he is old, he is a shell of his former self. By taking his life during a young age, the athlete gave
himself eternal life in people’s mind. Moreover, in “Crossing The Bar”, Tennyson describes death as something
people should not fear. Tennyson k...
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