Poetry analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Poetry analysis - Essay Example ot return his affections, the early death of his mother and the death of a second person close to him leading to the development of â€Å"A Shropshire Lad†, â€Å"a collection of sixty-three poems addressing the themes of unrequited love, the oblivion of death, and idealized military life† that carefully navigated around any issues of homosexuality. In addition, he is surprisingly consistent in his writing, showing nearly identical themes, forms and language usage in â€Å"Last Poems† as were used in â€Å"A Shropshire Lad.† However, his â€Å"open investigations of the mysteries of death and the dual nature of humankind have earned him acknowledgment as a precursor to the development of modern poetry† (â€Å"A.E. Housman†, 2006). These attitudes about death can be most understood as they are expressed in the poems â€Å"To An Athlete Dying Young,† â€Å"When I Was One and Twenty,† â€Å"With Rue My Heart is Laden† and â €Å"Is My Team Ploughing?† In â€Å"To An Athlete Dying Young†, Housman demonstrates a sensitive honor for the man who dies in his prime, invoking a powerful sense of regretful comprehension regarding the wisdom of dying young. He begins the poem with a nostalgic look back at the happy crowd carrying the star athlete around on a chair, everyone celebrating and having a good time. This nostalgia is established by the wistful â€Å"The time you won† (1) that immediately invokes a fog of memory around the edges of the scene described. The hero’s way is carefully invoked in the lines â€Å"Man and boy stood cheering by, / And home we brought you shoulder-high† (3-4) to be carefully juxtaposed against the same phrase in the second stanza: â€Å"Shoulder-high we bring you home, / And set you at your threshold down† (6-7). With only this slight change in language, Housman makes it clear that this is no longer a cheering crowd, they are not celebrating and, by distinguishing his fri end as â€Å"Townsman of a stiller town† (8), he makes it obvious that this is a