Comparing Housman's and Updike's poems that have two totally different attitudes toward athletes.

In A.E. Housman's poem "To an Athletes Dying Young" and John Updike's poem "Ex- Basketball Player," each of the speakers use two different types of attitudes toward the athletes. In A.E. Housman's poem, his way of thinking about the athlete is negative. 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. (955) The author expresses that the death …

…oil, and changes flats. Once in a while, As a gag, he dribbles an inner tube, But most of us remember anyway.(1) Now Flick's life is nothing more than endless job of doing crap. Basketball was not a career that never ended because it does end once someone better or young comes along to take a place of an older player. The author revels the haunting truth that you can not be the best forever.