Lights Out Figurative Language

In both “Lights Out” by Edward Thomas and “To Sleep” by John Keats, techniques such as selection of detail, diction, and figurative language are utilized to convey each speaker’s state of mind. The poems have similar ideas, but the techniques they use show the many differences in the speakers. Both poems use sleep as a metaphor for death. Thomas describes sleep as an “unfathomable deep” where all “lose their way.” Keats describes it as an “embalmer of the still midnight.” Despite their similar themes, the poems consist of differing ideas and feelings regarding the material.
While both poets speak about the same subject, their ideas and feelings toward the subject differ. In Edward Thomas’s “Lights Out,” the speaker is weary of death and what