The Theme Of Death In Emily Dickinson And Dylan Thomas

Everyone is going to die someday. It is an unpleasant fact. Because of universality of death, it is easy to understand why the theme of death occurs often in films and literature. Poetry is no exception to this trend. Poetry is filled with references to death of dying, because death is one of the most important human conditions. Some poets in particular have used death frequently in their writing. Emily Dickinson and Dylan Thomas are two of those poets. Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 and lived in Massachusetts. Much of her work had strong themes of death and many believed she was depressed. Her poetry consisted mostly of slant rhyme or near rhyme, which is seen in “Because I could not stop for Death” Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 and was …show more content…
This poem is a villanelle and has iambic pentameter. The main idea of the poem is that men should not die without a fight or without trying to live first at least. In this poem, night symbolizes death and light symbolizes life. The speaker in this poem is speaking to his dying father and trying to convince not to die without a fight, which is learned in the last stanza. However, the speaker also acknowledges that death is something that comes to all and cannot be avoided even if one was not ready for it. The fourth stanza, “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into good night.” conveys the regret these men feel in realizing too late that they are going to die without accomplishing what they wanted to accomplish. The entire poem as a theme of regret running through it. In the second stanza, the speaker mentions that wise men know that at their end death is right. However, because they feel they have made no impact in life, they do not wish to go die or go gentle into that good …show more content…
Instead, they urge to live life to its fullest while one still can. The fifth stanza is a powerful image of someone who may be weak and dying, but is still fighting for life, “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight, Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” The metaphor of someone’s blind eyes blazing like meteors lends to the idea of going out with a bang. The repeated lines “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” provide the sense of urgency the speaker has when it comes to death. The speaker desperately wants his father and anyone to continue to live and not give up hope when death is