Gentle Into That Good Night

Dolph Lundgren, the Swedish actor, once said, “I think mortality makes you live a fuller existence. When I was a kid I was scared of death, and maybe that's what made me desperate to get the most out of life.” This is a common thing that people think of throughout their lifetime. We believe that we should take more time in life to enjoy it and do as much as possible before we pass away. In the poems “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, and “The World Is Too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth touch on the theme of death and mortality. The ballad poem “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith is about a man who was going through depression in his life and the people who knew him
The villanelle is used by the author to talk about his dying father and encourages anyone who is going through the same phase to stay strong and fight death. Dylan Thomas suggests that we should leave this earth the same way we came in, “kicking and screaming” (p. 320). Some metaphors used in this villanelle is shown at the end of line 3, the author uses night as an example of death. The metaphor for death gets repeatedly used in the words “that good night” and “close of day”. The word “Old age should burn and rave” (p. 320) might refer to the author’s thoughts that old men/women should not die peacefully and instead fight for survival which might be his reasoning to add “rage against the dying light” at the end. The line “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight” (p. 320), is a metaphor which day represents a life cycle and the sun symbolizes that the world has amazing things and people should appreciate it. There is an oxymoron used in line 17 when the speaker asks his father to “curse” him but at the same time “bless” him. From lines 7-15, the speaker talks about “wise men,” “good men,” “grave men,” and “wild men” and something that they have done in their life. The speaker reminds the readers that they too will fight without a struggle, these lines are a use of
The speaker implies that the alienation of humanity from nature is like a death, because people are not driven by nature and instead preoccupied with “getting and spending” (Wordsworth). Furthermore, the speaker wishes to bring back an old religion instead and appreciate the land without feeling down and deserted. Although the author does not reference death in the sonnet, the speaker does imagine the alienation of humanity from nature as a type of death. In line 4, giving away our hearts is a metaphor to the speaker’s imagination of alienation. Line 4 also has an oxymoron when using “sordid boon” (Wordsworth) because it means the worst aspects of the humans that is selfishness and greed, while a boon is something beneficial. The main complaint that the speaker has is that nature is not appreciated anymore since most people are more interested in consumerism. A metaphor is used in line 5 when the speaker compares the sea to someone taking off their shirt, “bares her bosom” (Wordsworth), and is also an example of alliteration. Another metaphor is used in the next line when the winds are said to be howling as if it was a wolf. In line 8, a musical instrument is used as a metaphor for humanity when saying “we are out of tune” (Wordsworth). This means that humans are not tuned to