X-Nico

unusual facts about To an Athlete Dying Young



Acephalous line

It is a technique employed often in the concluding lines of hymn texts, and has been employed in poetry to change tone or announce a conclusion, including its use in Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" and A.E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young." Robert Wallace argues in his Meter in English that the term acephalous line seems "pejorative", as if criticising the poet's violation of scansion, but this view is not widely held among critics.


see also