"To an Athlete Dying Young," by A. E. Housman (Branch copy)
Author: A. E. Housman
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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 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 honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
He lost his soul, then just gave up on it, and was tired of it before anyone noticed
So set, before its 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.
Source: The Norton Anthology of Poetry Third Edition (1983)
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i guessing when the speaker said " Man and boy stood cheering by, " like the boy was watching the race and cheering the person that won the race when he was little boy watching races all the time with his pops and the second quote was " And home we brought you shoulder – high " when he was down his pops bought him up to give him hope again
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Because I think it may be a little simpler than that. It could be saying that the man and boy cheered the person that the author is reading to on, and carried him because either A.) the race wore him out, or B.) victoriously carrying him and chanting his name.
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