XIXTo an Athlete Dying Young
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 where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honors out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man.
So set, before the echoes fade, The fleet foot on the sill of shade, And hold to the low lintel up The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl's.