“Die Young and Die Happy” In “To An Athlete Dying Young,” A.E. Housman appears to be congratulating the athlete whose fate has permitted him to die at a young age. The speaker views premature death in a positive light, by calling the dead athlete a “smart lad” (Barnet, Sylvan, et all, line 8) for dying as a champion and not remaining in the “fields where glory does not stay” (9). Although the young athlete faced death …showed first 75 words of 1231 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1231 total…he or she has grown old and have the people that once praised the athlete be deceased, meaning that the person’s funeral would be diminished in size and would become a funeral of an unknown person. Instead, when reading Housman’s poem, “To An Athlete Dying Young” he was able to make the reader view Shepley 5 the death in a positive light. The athlete died without the taste of defeat; he died a champion!