Select the correct answer. Read this excerpt from "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman: 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. What does the metaphor in the line "It withers quicker than the rose" imply?
The speaker is writing about an athlete that had passed away at a young age. In this stanza, the speaker is comparing human life to two different flowers. The young athlete is similar to the laurel flower; he blossomed earlier than a rose, but he also died earlier as well.
