Today’s Poem: To an Athlete Dying Young

A.E. Housman and the art of neatness

Ancient Greek athletes running, Corinthian amphora, c. 550 B.C. (Wikimedia Commons)

To an Athlete Dying Young

by A.E. Housman

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.

Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at yo…