Housman Redux

(Note: One of my students is having a hard time with A. E. Housman's poem "To an Athlete Dying Young." In an effort to understand why he doesn't believe the poem when it says that dying young is an advantage, he's writing a paraphrase of the poem, and I'm playing along...)

When you brought home gold
we carried you on shoulders
cheering

Today
down that same road
we carry you on shoulders
grieving

Smart boy, to steal away
from fleeting glory
before it steals away
from you

Dead eyes will not watch
your records fall
Dead ears will not hear
crowds fall silent

Now you will never know the thinness
of threadbare honor
of runners outrun by fame
of bodies who outlived their names

So step quickly past the edge of death
before the echoes of your victory fade
and be buried holding trophies
still

And we will come to see
your body, strong and powerless
And we will find unwithered
muscle, laurel, fame.