/lit/ - Literature

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

He gets more threads than my man Housman does.

If the dead athlete is not the one being addressed in A.E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young," then who is?

between the title and all the references in second person
>The time you won your town the race
>shoulder high we bring you home
>now you will not swell the rout
is it completely wrong to say that the dead runner is the one who is being talked to?

You should all read this. A. E. Housman (1859 - 1936) is one of the best poets to teach you how to read poetry. Try reading it aloud.

"Is My Team Ploughing"

“Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”

Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plough.

“Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more?”

Ay the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands up, the keeper
Stands up to keep the goal.

“Is my girl happy,
That I thought hard to leave,
And has she tired of weeping
As she lies down at eve?”

Ay, she lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep:
Your girl is well contented.
Be still, my lad, and sleep.

“Is my friend hearty,
Now I am thin and pine,
And has he found to sleep in
A better bed than mine?”

Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.

A.E. Housman