Finish Line. Comments
Peter Snell was an unknown athlete
when he won the 800 metres gold medal
at the 1960 Rome Olympics, lunging at the tape
to just shade Roger Moens on the line.
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Michael, with PH as it is now, you may no longer visit, or you may but never see this note. I hope you are well. i persevere, now and then, hoping PH will recover someday to its glory. bri : )
A wonderful tribute to Peter Snell of New Zealand who made his country men proud by winning gold in Olympics and breaking records as an athelete.The stories of such players are very motivating.Thank you Michael for this lovely piece of poem and also Congratulations for being selected as the Poet of the Day!
Thanks for your generous sentiments. I do think that affirming heroes has a place in poetry still.
Affirming heroes is not hero worship, which is getting out of date.
Beautiful! I love the simplicity of language, no embellishments. I got to know an athlete too
A wonderful poem of the day. Congrats on you featured piece........10++++
A beautiful tribute to a great champ ceremoniously rich in tone. A very compassionate work of art. Thanks for sharing, Michael.
You make a very studied response to the poem. Thanks for your thoughts.
Nice dedication. Peter Snell! ! ! ! Muse of New Zealand. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.
It was a pleasure to write about Peter Snell, modest champion..The best athlete my country has produced.
I like the extract from Housman which precedes and complements the poem
I liked Housman's poem very much also. Snell did not die young, but was only 26 when he retired from athletics.. That's how I made the connection. Thanks.
'To an Athlete Dying Young' is one of the most memorable poems which I taught in high school.
Thank you. I do like to give details. That is where the divine may be found, as Leonard Cohen said of his songs.
Awakens sports awareness. Poets can be athletes, too I believe. Congrats on POD.
You are right. There are points of comparison between the two, notably the hard work in training or thinking. Poetry is mainly mental, while athletics is more physical, but the mental element is very important too. You raise a fascinating question.
On my second visit to this poem, I would like to Congratulate you for its selection as 'Poem of the Day' today. Thanks a lot.
Beautiful Tribute writing for the great one on the tone of elegy// has been finished there but still no finished alive wherever the eyes revolve its ball crystal clear the great deeds, the generous heart still reminds cordially everything
Thanks for noticing an athletics poem which was also a human interest story. Striving for excellence, rejecting mediocrity.
this is deep and powerful and you are such an expressive and amazing writer wow.. thank you for sharing.. :)
I wrote the poem from the heart, as I like athletics so much. Peter Snell was also a special human being. Thanks for your analysis.
Nice to know about this great athlete and his achievements in International sporting events having broken several world records. He was rightly adjudged as 'Athlete of the Century' in New Zealand. His humanitarian work after his retirement from active sports in 1964 remained very noteworthy.
You are right. Peter Snell was just as notable for humanitarian work, as he was for breaking world records on the track.
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7/17/2025 9:14:21 PM # 1.0.0
did a first grader write this