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Compare And Contrast Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night And On My First Son

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Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” and Ben Johnson’s “On My First Son” are both poems that discuss death and the various emotions associated with grief. “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” depicts the young speaker’s anger, denial, and urgent resistance to his father’s imminent death, whereas “On My First Son” describes the speaker’s solemn acceptance of his son’s death. Taken together, these two poems generate a commentary on the loss of a loved one. Specifically, through form, meter, tone, and general content, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” and “On My First Son” depict the trajectory of grief and describe the differences in one’s reaction to death as a product of maturity. The highly structured nature of both of these poems is an ode to the fact that when grieving, structured, daily routines are often essential for the griever to maintain a sense of composure and stability. As a villanelle, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” is structured such that two lines, “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” appear several times throughout the poem in predictable locations. Unlike many villanelles wherein the poets alter these repeating lines grammatically or syntactically, these lines remain the exact same for the entirety of the poem. Additionally, it follows the standard form of five …show more content…

This rigid form and unwavering predictability mirrors the structure that the speaker requires to process the death of his father. Presumably rather young, this speaker likely needs more of this

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This constant physical battle with death is also displayed in the poem when Thomas repeats phrases such as, “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas), alluding that the son is pleading for his father not to succumb to death and instead, fight for that last glimmer of hope. Both authors' linguistic choices display the prevailing theme that one must maintain faith, even in the harshest of times, and remind the reader of how precious life is. In Night, death feels inevitable. This constant feeling of death causes Elie’s father’s death to be understated, with Elie merely waking up to his father being gone. His father's death seems so insignificant because it simply ends a life that was already full of suffering

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Dylan Thomas and Catherine Davis use two different styles of tone to explain the subject of death. In “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas uses negative words but the positive diction that is used is in a negative sense creating a greater pessimistic tone. For instance, a repeating line in this Villanelle says “Do not go gentle into the goodnight” (Dylan 1). Dylan uses the positive phrase goodnight to represent death, a negative theme. The diction in “After a Time” by Catherine Davis differs from Dylan Thomas’s use in which is it negative throughout.

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The poem, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, was published in 1951 while Thomas’s father was dying. This poem means alot to the author, and is considered his most famous work. The poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Nights’” technical aspects, contents, and figurative language contribute to its continued property. “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” consists of six stanzas and nineteen lines. There are around eight words per line and a period at the end of each stanza, except for the last one.

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