Laurel

The laurel is a symbol of glory attained through physical prowess and achievement both within Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young” in the classical canon to which he is responding. In addition, Housman has his speakers repeatedly draw attention to the short-lived quality of the glory represented by the laurel – his speakers make the incisive comment that “early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose,” which emphasizes the naturalness of biological decay of the “laurel” and, by extension, the way in which glory quickly fades (11-12). As such, the attempt to cement the titular athlete’s glory by the inhabitants of Shropshire is materialized within the laurel. In the final stanza of the poem in which the athlete’s “early-laurelled head” contains a “garland briefer than a girls,” the speakers create a sense of precariousness: despite the speakers’ insistence that they have...