Throughout the poems, “Annabel Lee”, and, “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night”, both authors, Edgar Allan Poe and Dylan Thomas have themes related to death. The poem authored by Edgar Allan Poe has an overall topic of the human reaction to the demise of a loved one. The person who Poe was writing about was his late wife, Virginia, who had died from tuberculosis at the age of 25. Poe was referring to death in his poem, as a heartbreaking event, that makes people feel dejected and alone. Poe uses very strong and dark word choice to keep the reader interested in the topic.
Though it is only ten lines, there are multiple types of loss in this Lydia Davis poem. It is evident that heart has lost something or someone that it loves dearly and is experiencing a great amount of pain. Additionally, head reminds heart that everything must be lost eventually. In comparison, the plot of Nebraska also holds loss but in a different way. In this Bruce Springsteen poem, an individual goes on a killing spree and feels no remorse for the things they have done.
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas subjects defiance against accepting death quietly. It talks about different ways on how men approach death in old age and encourage people to struggle to live until the last breath. Thomas uses figurative language to give deeper meanings to his work. Although the basic theme of this work is about death and old age, by using different figurative language such as metaphor and simile, it enables the reader to think more and see another theme like time is ticking, and before you know it, you may be on your deathbed. But since it was written during the dying moment of his father, Thomas might be thinking of death, and plea to him to defy it and rage against the dying light.
Mortality has been fought since human consciousness first erupted out of an empty abyss. The uncertainty of what happens after you die has frightened humans for thousands of years, resulting in religion, modern medicine, and thanatophobia. In “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the narrator pleads to his father not to accept his death and continue fighting to live. Thomas expresses his beliefs through repetition, metaphors, and familiar diction. The first stanza serves as an exposition for the rest of the poem.
Throughout the whole poem, Dylan Thomas had a negative opinion as well as a rage reaction to death; Dylan Thomas had a more accepting mindset towards the end of the poem when he had a realization. The realization Thomas had was the fact that rather on focusing on his father giving up to death, he should have been thinking about his father rather than the death aspect of it. In the last stanza, the mindset was shifted as Thomas said “And you, my father, there on the sad height, / Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. / Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (16-19).
The literary works Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and Psalm of Life are both poems of solemn remembrance. The authors both advocate the need for excitement and passion in life, encouraging action to be taken with every moment. Literary devices are used to help carry across the messages regarding life and the imminent death. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is authored by Dylan Thomas; he addresses his father and advises him on how to face his impending demise. He describes the helplessness that accompanies death and how to avoid falling subject to it; as well as the need for life to be lived with excitement.
The poems, “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” written by John Keats and Dylan Thomas respectively, feature a similar theme of entropy, differ in the poets attitudes towards death and decline, and reflect the emotional perspective of the authors. We can gain insight in to the experiences that lead the authors to compose each of these works by comparing them. Thomas writes from a defiant place while Keats writes with acceptance. The authors have painted a picture of the entropic world as they saw it using different strokes and colours, the result, being these wonderful poems.
In his famous poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, Dylan Thomas writes about death; meanwhile, his own father is on his death bed from an illness. He speaks of many kinds of men, his father included, who all are bound to die. Yet throughout the many descriptions of dying men, there is one definitive similarity that draws together a conclusion. By analyzing the diction and structure, as well as the individual lines of Thomas’s poem the general identified theme is that no matter how people may live their lives, or what those people believe in, they all will fight to get away from the inevitable clutches of death.
The poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” contains descriptive, euphonious and cacophonous words to develop a message. The poem discusses the topic of death and how people look and accept it in different ways. The third verse in the first stanza uses diction with negative words to explain the rage some might have against death. Wise men knowing and accepting their fate of death is a topic in the second stanza. The wise men accept it but because they left no legacy they fight for more time.
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, is based on the point of view of a son, a son who loves his father and doesn’t want see him go into the “long” nap. This poem gives off a very emotional fight against death, trying to save his father, the author is telling him to not be settle, to not give up or even lose hope, the not even death can take that away from you. “Do not go Gentle into That Good Night” is just a cry from a boy that loves his father. The Quote “Do Not go gentle into that Good Night” is seen multiple times all over the poem, yet each time it’s presented, its meaning changes.
Dylan Thomas’ poem, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, explores the various emotional reactions associated with aging and the anxiety towards nearing death. However, Thomas encourages his audience to actively resist against death, rather than to comply with it. Not only is the primary focus of this poem revolved around the inevitability of death and dying, it addresses life and how it is lived. The six stanzas within the villanelle provides a seemingly simple rhythmic structure, which complements with the complex message of mortality, old age, and fleeting moments. Thomas’s use of diction and word choice illustrates the themes present within the piece that highlights the imagery within the poem.
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).
Dylan Thomas’s poem, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” is a poem that focuses on death and the struggle to fight for life. In the last stanza, line sixteen, the reader finds out that the speaker is addressing his father. According to the Poetry Foundation, it is autobiographical because it was, “a poem written during his father's illness and in anticipation of his death.” The entire poem is written in an attempt to convince someone that people should not give in easily to death, but should rage against it. Therefore, Dylan Thomas is trying to encourage his father to hold on to his life and try his hardest to fight his impending death.
A classic poem by all definitions of the term, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is written from the perspective of a son pleading to his bed-ridden, dying father that he must fight. The son describes that everyone faces the same end, but that, regardless, they still fight for life. “Rage, rage, against the dying of the light” he says to his dad, almost begging him to not give up on this world. The stanzas following are the son, who is actually Thomas himself, listing off reasons as to why his father should go out wildly, and with a bang, rather than waste away quietly. The poem is not only about a son trying to persuade his father to stay with him, but about a son trying desperately to delay the loss and grief he may soon have to face.
In Dylan Thomas’s, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, Thomas uses a myriad of literary devices to convey meaning in his poem. He uses metaphors, meter/rhythm, and repetition to convey the meaning that you should keep fighting for your life, even if you are very close to death and not accept defeat. My instructors and Thomas both conveyed similar messages.
