Compare & Contrast 2 Poems Intro

            Time is a tormenting aspect in life. Depending on the situation there is either too much time or too little. Both “To an Athlete Dying Young” and “Ulysses” illustrate how glory wilts as time moves on. In “To an Athlete Dying Young,” Housman in third-person expresses how in people’s minds the athlete’s glory is timeless. The sense of everlasting glory in which everything runs smoothly for a person is accentuated by Housman’s use of alliteration. Lord Tennyson’s elegy “Ulysses” is a first person monologue of a dying soldier reflecting on his days of fame. Contrary to the flow of “To an Athlete Dying Young,” Tennyson uses blank verse and enjambment to reflect the expiring voice of the soldier. Thus, The literary devices used help deepen the reader’s understanding that glory fades with time and thus every moment should be relished.