Literary Works
Literary Works
Sophia Wiggins
ENG125: Introduction to Literature
Joan Golding
October 9, 2012
Death is an aspect of life that everyone becomes acquainted with sooner or later. Two poems that deal with the concept of death that I actually enjoyed reading and will compare to each others are “Death be not proud” and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” These poems seem to have contradictory message about death, yet at the same time have similar attitudes toward it.” Death Be Not Proud” sees death as an opponent; however, one sees it as an adversary that is already defeated while the other sees it as an enemy that must be defeated. In “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” poet Dylan Thomas uses nighttime as a metaphor for death, and anguishes over his father’s willing acceptance of it. This poem is one of the most famous villanelles every written in the English language. Villanelles are 19 lines long, consisting of five stanzas of three lines each and concluding with a four line stanza. Villanelles uses only two rhymes, while repeating two lines throughout the poem, which then appear together at the conclusion of the last stanza. The two lines repeated in this work are “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and “Do not go gentle into that good night.” The poet begins by proposing that the elderly should not easily accept their demise (“go gentle”), that they should fight it with vigor and intensity (“Old age should burn and rave at the close of day”). The choice of the words “burn” and “rave” suggest an uncontrolled, irrational response to imminent death, the incoherent expenditure of useless energy directed at a hopeless goal. Yet for the author, this seemingly senseless display is preferable to docile submission to the “close of day”. The son is seeing his father slowly wither before him, and he mourns the loss of vibrancy in the old man. Thomas knows that death is unavoidable, even “good”, but he does not concede that
Sophia Wiggins
ENG125: Introduction to Literature
Joan Golding
October 9, 2012
Death is an aspect of life that everyone becomes acquainted with sooner or later. Two poems that deal with the concept of death that I actually enjoyed reading and will compare to each others are “Death be not proud” and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” These poems seem to have contradictory message about death, yet at the same time have similar attitudes toward it.” Death Be Not Proud” sees death as an opponent; however, one sees it as an adversary that is already defeated while the other sees it as an enemy that must be defeated. In “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” poet Dylan Thomas uses nighttime as a metaphor for death, and anguishes over his father’s willing acceptance of it. This poem is one of the most famous villanelles every written in the English language. Villanelles are 19 lines long, consisting of five stanzas of three lines each and concluding with a four line stanza. Villanelles uses only two rhymes, while repeating two lines throughout the poem, which then appear together at the conclusion of the last stanza. The two lines repeated in this work are “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and “Do not go gentle into that good night.” The poet begins by proposing that the elderly should not easily accept their demise (“go gentle”), that they should fight it with vigor and intensity (“Old age should burn and rave at the close of day”). The choice of the words “burn” and “rave” suggest an uncontrolled, irrational response to imminent death, the incoherent expenditure of useless energy directed at a hopeless goal. Yet for the author, this seemingly senseless display is preferable to docile submission to the “close of day”. The son is seeing his father slowly wither before him, and he mourns the loss of vibrancy in the old man. Thomas knows that death is unavoidable, even “good”, but he does not concede that