ipl-logo

Dylan Thomas 'Because I Could Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'

556 Words3 Pages

Synthesis Essay
“Do Not go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson

While both of these poems have the overall themes of Mortality, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” is about Death itself, while “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is about the act of Dying and the end of Life. While they are both lyric poems Dylan Thomas’ poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” has a clear morale or message. It states that one should “not go gentle into that good night.” and “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” In other words to die fighting, instead of lying down. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson has no such message readily apparent. Instead of presenting …show more content…

“Do Not” and less obviously “Because” both use the onset of night or the setting sun to symbolize death. “Do Not” also uses the “light” to represent life and bright symbols like meteors, lightning and the act of Catching the Sun are used to tell of its intensity. Meanwhile Emily Dickinson represents the grave with a house described as “a swelling of the ground.” The carriage in the poem is akin to something similar to the ferry that takes souls across the river Styx and the journey in said carriage can be interpreted as being a metaphor for the journey between the cradle and the grave. The carriage goes past “The school, where children strove.” then “the fields of gazing grain” then finally “the setting sun.” If you take these three settings to represent Childhood, Middle Age and Seniority using the Schoolyard, golden fields of grain, and the setting sun. Metaphorically the three stages of life can be seen as being represented in this poem.

While the two poems “Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night” and “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” have similar themes they are otherwise completely different. There is more symbolism in “Because” while the Meter in “Do Not” is followed far more strictly. “Do Not” also has a crystal-clear moral. Emily Dickinson’s poem has none such clear-cut message. Because of this, they are, in all actuality completely different poems, even though they have similar themes. Because of its intrinsic nature

Show More
Related
614 Words | 3 Pages

Although Dylan Thomas in “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” and Emily Dickinson in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” both talk about the similar issue of death, they are able to talk about different aspects of it with the same idea using unique poetic writing styles. For instance, Emily Dickinson uses irony in her poem by relating to the serious topic of death with a soft tone, treating it as a journey of life. Also, in “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” the speaker gives the reader a tone of urgency and demand, where even with anger and rage towards death everyone will all end with it no matter the situation because that is life. This paper aims to compare two poems with examples that will reveal their similarities and differences within the themes.

Read More
1289 Words | 6 Pages

Dylan Thomas’s famous elegy “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” is perhaps the greatest example of villanelle in modern poetry, using death as its focus. Death is a unifier in the sense that no man, big or small can resist their eventual end. However, the author recognizes the solemnness of the concept and connects it to the audience’s fear of losing a loved one. By doing so, the poem taps into the raw emotion of the will to live. This paper will describe how Thomas uses a series of brilliant poetic strategies such as diction, structure and rhythm to suggest that all men, while different in character, should passionately resist the inevitability of death.

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Dylan Thomas was a literary artist who lived during the early 1900s. He wrote poems like, “Fern Hill” and “A Childs Christmas in Wales.” As a child Thomas’ father read him many literary works and poems and these kindred his interest in literature. This helped him grow a strong relationship with his father which explains the content of one of his more famous poems. The poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night”, by Dylan Thomas details a man begging his father not to let death end his life before he passes and, he does this through the repeated phrase, “rage against the dying of the light”, asking his father to be “fierce”, and talking about how most men are forgotten and begging his father

Read More
337 Words | 2 Pages

“Do not go Gentle into that Good Night” tells of a son near his father’s death bed. The poem shows the raw power of emotion presented by Thomas. The poem is written to address his father dying, and encouraging him to cling to life. The third line of the poem, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ”(“Good Night” 3)

Read More
593 Words | 3 Pages

The biggest difference between the two poems, “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” and “Do Not Go Gentle Into

Read More
273 Words | 2 Pages

“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas is a very strong piece of work about struggling to survive no matter the situation and never giving into death. The speaker of the poem is a son who has a dying father and is urging him to not give in to death’s embrace “And you, my father, there on the sad height” (Thomas 16). The tone in this story is very gloomy but very strong willed. When the speaker refers to “that good night” (Thomas 1), it is a metaphor to death; however the speaker is urging to fight against death “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas 3). The title of this poem summarizes the entire piece of work, the point to always fight to survive is emphasized in almost every stanza of the poem “Do not go gentle

Read More
1043 Words | 5 Pages

In the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” the poet uses a metaphor to compare death as “night” and “dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas repeats the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” in each stanza to emphasize that all men should not accept death, but fight it until their last breath. He describes four types of dying men before addressing his father. First, he states that intelligent men that know death is near and have not had any impact on society still fight to live: “though wise men at their end know dark is right, / Because their words had forked no lightning they / do not go gentle into the good night.” (Lines 4-6).

Read More
1214 Words | 5 Pages

When Dickinson was young she thought of death as a kind, peaceful gentleman. She elaborates on this idea in her poem “Because I could not Stop for Death”, “Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me/ We slowly drove - He knew no haste,” Emily Dickinson uses the personification of Death in a way that bears resemblance to a classy, peaceful gentleman who is willing to slowly guide and patiently wait for a lady. Her wording also gives the connotation that she is young and in love with this gentle Death. This idea abruptly turns into hatred when she loses her parents.

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

The theme of the of is that death need not be feared and in this poem the speaker shows how death is a part of life, and how death really is not as scary as it seems. The speaker in the poem “Because i could not stop for death” by Emily Dickinson personifies death as a gentlemen to make death seem less scary. The speaker states “Because I could not stop for death--He kindly stopped for me…” (568). Death normally cannot stop to let a person inside a carriage.

Read More
1000 Words | 4 Pages

“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson is a poem about death being personified in an odd and imaginative way. The poet has a personal encounter with Death, who is male and drives a horse-carriage. They go on a mysterious journey through time and from life to death to an afterlife. The poem begins with its first line being the title, but Emily Dickinson’s poems were written without a title and only numbered when published, after she died in 1886.

Read More
843 Words | 4 Pages

The poems “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” by Emily Dickinson both describe death and a journey one takes to get there. In “Because I could not stop for Death” the speaker tells of someones journey of death that did not see it coming and had no time to slow down to notice it. While in the poem “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” the speaker describes ones journey to death that aware it is coming, someone who is prepared and waiting for it to happen. Death can arrive in many different forms, it is different for everyone and nobody knows or can predict accurately when or how it will come no matter how prepared or not prepared someone is.

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar considers the subject of death from the viewpoint of someone experiencing it themselves, and expressing that they hope those close to them can feel the sense of closure that they do. In Dylan Thomas’ Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night tackles the same subject from the viewpoint of someone watching their father die, and asking him to fight against death. The authors different viewpoints and opinions on the subject of death allow them to use similar literary elements in opposite ways. Tennyson uses figurative language in the form of darkness and night to depict the coming of death. “Twilight and evening bell /

Read More
926 Words | 4 Pages

In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.

Read More
1312 Words | 6 Pages

C) Dylan Thomas is the author of the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into the Night”. The poem general is about urging the individual who is in the death bed. The poet’s dad is in the passing bed, in this poem. He needs his dad to battle against death. He realizes that the passing is unavoidable.

Read More
938 Words | 4 Pages

Emily Dickinson lived during a time when many would become very well acquainted with death. As such it would become a specter that was feared as it could make an appearance at any time. So looking at Dickinson 's work it seems rather interesting that taken as a collection there seems to be the tale of one character that comes to view death in a multitude of different ways throughout their life. First is the feared figure that leaves them restless, then death comes as something numbing but leaves the living to celebrate the life of the one that has passed, life as a story that is completed and finished upon death, and finally coming to see death as kind figure that takes one to a new home. this finally view is what paints death as something that is not to be feared but rather as something natural, it is the next

Read More

More about Dylan Thomas 'Because I Could Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'

Related Topics

Open Document