The remarkably written poem, “Dying Young” by Emily Reichard of Albrightsville, PA sheds light to the increasingly dangerous topic of polluting ourselves as well as the Earth through the use of cigarettes.  Smoking has always been a growing problem and this poem encompasses how youth is more susceptible to it as our generation grows.  It describes the horrifying effects of smoking not only to our environment but to our own bodies as well.  Emily Reichard’s poem recognizes the numerous detrimental results of smoking—one of them being our world “dying young.”  Furthermore, the poem conveys how our world is filled with hypocrites who speak of the world ending when the fact is that they are the ones killing it.
     “Dying Young,” although no one I know smokes, is relatable in that I now realize how important of an issue smoking has become in our society.  The poem displays how smoking destroys everything surrounding it mimicking a poisonous plague.  The author does a great job writing symbolically and in a harmonious manner.  I especially like how the author wrote the lines, “Lungs filled with tar/ Black as the road we stood/ Paved highways on our chest.”  These lines eloquently illustrate the connection between our environment’s damage and our body’s damage from smoking and the polluting of the Earth.  The use of sensory descriptions within the poem also allows for imagery and a sense of the actual understanding of the topic.  Therefore, the poem, “Dying Young” by Emily Reichard was extremely powerful and definitely brought awareness to the issue of the youth smoking.