Ms. Baby Jean Casta
Subject Teacher
John Angelo V. Joveda Stem 12 St. Benedict 21st Century 09-30-2025
The poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by Alfred
Edward Housman
reflects on the fleeting nature of fame and the inevitability of death. It tells the story of a young athlete who is celebrated for his victory, but soon dies, leaving his glory preserved in memory. The poem combines admiration with melancholy, showing how youth and achievement can be both beautiful and brief.
Alfred Edward Housman (1859–1936)
was an English poet and classical scholar, best known for his poetry collection A Shropshire Lad (1896). His works often explore themes of love, loss, mortality, and the passage of time. Housman worked as a professor of Latin at University College London and later at Cambridge. Despite his reserved personality, his poems deeply touched readers with their simplicity, emotional depth, and timeless reflections on human life.
The poems reflect how beauty and happiness in life are often brief, using nature as a symbol of both joy and sorrow.
I like A Shropshire Lad because it expresses deep emotions in simple words and reminds us to value life’s fleeting moments.
