Compare and Contrast the presentation of death in Dylan Thomas’ poem and Christina Rossetti’s
Death is a common theme for poets, we see this in Dylan Thomas’ poem ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ and Christina Rossetti’s poem ‘Remember’. Neither of the poems use the word death directly, they use metaphors such as ‘silent land’ in Rossetti’s, and ‘good night’ in Thomas’. Both poems are littered with euphemistic language to elevate the tone, this portrays the poets own reluctance to talk of death. Rossetti’s poem is about dying peacefully and accepting the persons death. She talks about her going away and how she wants to be remembered. Rossetti changes her tone half way through to say that if you are going to ‘remember and be sad’ it …show more content…
This is well suited as the poem takes the form of council from son to father. Thomas does not want his father to give up and the repetition on the poem of ‘do not go gentle into that good night’ and ‘rage rage against the dying of the light’ are repeated throughout the poem to enforce the fact that you should not give up and keep trying. The poem is a poem of morning and loss of the fathers facilities, his mind and will. Thomas tries to persuade his father to keep trying as he does not want to let him go. Rossetti’s poem is a classic sonnet, reserved for love. By using this form it is clear the whole poem is imbued with acceptance and loving release. The poem consists of a highly regular rhythm with 4 rhyming collets which feature most in the octet. However the sonnet does not close on a heroic cullet. Like Thomas’ poem Rossetti’s is also written in iambic pentameter, conveying a soft rhythm and counselling. Rossetti’s poem is contains an octet and a sestet, split with a volta, this signals a change in the direction and tone. In the sextet the advice turns to remembering to forgetting and moving on, the rhyme scheme also …show more content…
This enforces the fact that she wants to be remembered even though the final message is to forget. The title is paradoxical, as the advice is the opposite, however we know that she wants to be remembered otherwise she would not have named her poem ‘remember’. Thomas’ poem also contains more repetition to enforce the fact that he does not want his father to give up and he uses repetition to enforce this.
In my opinion, I personally prefer ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ because I like the idea of fighting against death and ‘[raging] against the dying of the light’ because I believe you should hold onto your life and not give into death easily and fulfil your full potential. I also like it because it is counselling from son to father, not father to son, seeing as normally parents council the
Death is a common theme for poets, we see this in Dylan Thomas’ poem ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ and Christina Rossetti’s poem ‘Remember’. Neither of the poems use the word death directly, they use metaphors such as ‘silent land’ in Rossetti’s, and ‘good night’ in Thomas’. Both poems are littered with euphemistic language to elevate the tone, this portrays the poets own reluctance to talk of death. Rossetti’s poem is about dying peacefully and accepting the persons death. She talks about her going away and how she wants to be remembered. Rossetti changes her tone half way through to say that if you are going to ‘remember and be sad’ it …show more content…
This is well suited as the poem takes the form of council from son to father. Thomas does not want his father to give up and the repetition on the poem of ‘do not go gentle into that good night’ and ‘rage rage against the dying of the light’ are repeated throughout the poem to enforce the fact that you should not give up and keep trying. The poem is a poem of morning and loss of the fathers facilities, his mind and will. Thomas tries to persuade his father to keep trying as he does not want to let him go. Rossetti’s poem is a classic sonnet, reserved for love. By using this form it is clear the whole poem is imbued with acceptance and loving release. The poem consists of a highly regular rhythm with 4 rhyming collets which feature most in the octet. However the sonnet does not close on a heroic cullet. Like Thomas’ poem Rossetti’s is also written in iambic pentameter, conveying a soft rhythm and counselling. Rossetti’s poem is contains an octet and a sestet, split with a volta, this signals a change in the direction and tone. In the sextet the advice turns to remembering to forgetting and moving on, the rhyme scheme also …show more content…
This enforces the fact that she wants to be remembered even though the final message is to forget. The title is paradoxical, as the advice is the opposite, however we know that she wants to be remembered otherwise she would not have named her poem ‘remember’. Thomas’ poem also contains more repetition to enforce the fact that he does not want his father to give up and he uses repetition to enforce this.
In my opinion, I personally prefer ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ because I like the idea of fighting against death and ‘[raging] against the dying of the light’ because I believe you should hold onto your life and not give into death easily and fulfil your full potential. I also like it because it is counselling from son to father, not father to son, seeing as normally parents council the