To an Athlete Dying Young
Sean Taylor's death is a small piece of a larger tragic pattern. Can it be changed?
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
—A.E. Housman
When I first read "To an Athlete Dying Young" during the brief poetry section of my 11th-grade English class, I thought it the most profound and poignant literary encounter of my life.
Athletic glory—though I had no real experience of it except in my daydreams—certainly seemed fleeting. And though I couldn't mistake the sadness in the poem, I preferred to take the romantic view. Death was not harsh or ugly, just a case of slipping betimes away. For me, the kid runner of the poem transmogrified into Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, telling an adoring Yankee Stadium crowd, "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
Those romantic, teenage illusions died young too. I quickly came to understand that the death of a great young athlete doesn't immortalize the glory. There will be no such consolation with Washington Redskinssafety Sean Taylor, who died Tuesday morning, just 24 years old, after being shot in his Miami home. Sure, his teammates will wear a black patch or armband bearing his number 21 for the rest of the season. And lots of loving and generous words will be said and written. But if Taylor is remembered for very long by anyone more than his family and closest friends, it will not be for what his all too brief life was, but for the promise of what it might have been.
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Member Comments
Posted By: elizabeth03 @ 12/06/2007 3:32:18 PM
Comment: the problem is not a racial thing YES it is predominatly black, but the issue is poverty stricken people. kids see someone from the hood coming up making money and doing good for themselves they don't strive to do that, they want to steal it from them, kill them whatever they have to do to get quick money. Athletes and YES again it's predominatly the black athletes spend millions of dollars on Jewlery and rims flashy things, instead of investing and saving money. I think the key to putting an end to thing is educating our underpriveledge youth, even athletes they come into money @ 22 years old after living 22 years with NOTHING they want everybody to see what they got now who they are and then they are the target of crime.
Posted By: elizabeth03 @ 12/06/2007 3:25:49 PM
Comment: It's not a black and white thing it's the THUG mentality thing unfortunaltly the majoraty is black. they come from NOTHING and rise to fame because of there athletic ability, they come into money something they have never had before and they want everyone to know...the sad reality is the people you grew up with and that know you from the hood but didnt have the athletic ability or maybe they did but messed up there chances those are the ones after you, they want ot kill you and rob you of what you have. It's going to be a long time before this is corrected is it ever will be, they live in poverty...how are you going to change that? one thing is to teach the young athletes about Banks and savings accounts. they dont know nothing about that growing up, quick cash if they get cash... Educating our underpriveledged youth is the key
Posted By: Rdsknsldy @ 11/30/2007 7:18:51 PM
Comment: It is most unfortunate that while we are trying to cope with the senseless murder of our beloved Sean Taylor, a few members of the media contribute to this tragedy by adding character assassination.