The poem started in a happy mood talking about a better time. A time before tragedy struck the town. They are reminiscing of the time when he won a big race and everyone was so proud of him. “We chaired you through the marketplace” It says showing how happy everyone was with him. People were cheering for him as they carried him home. This is where the mood of the poem changes. “Shoulder high we bring you home and set you at your threshold down” means that he has passed away. The next line “townsman of a stiller town” is showing how griefstruck everybody felt about what happened to him. The town has been silenced now by this. The next stanza is talking about how he died to young “And early though the laurel grows, It withers quicker than the
