Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 73" and Thomas’ "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" focus on the theme of death and its effect on human beings. Both of the poems heavily use metaphors to develop emotions and attitudes toward death.
In "Sonnet 73", there exists a melancholy tone that engulfs the entire poem. This may be intended because Shakespeare wants to express that death is a not a happy ending. He compresses time down from a season, to a day, then to a moment to convey his message that youth is fading. He uses death’s second self, night, twilight, ‘sunset fadeth’ and the ‘glowing of fire’ as a mechanism to manifest death. By using these metaphors, Shakespeare indirectly talks about how sleep, darkness, sunset, and the dying of a fire lead to the theme of death. For example, Shakespeare refers to death’s second self as sleep to indicate that there is a possibility that a person may not wake up again when fallen asleep. He also uses ‘sunset fadeth’ to specify the last state of life that a person is in.
Similarly, in "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", Thomas uses ‘good night’, meteors, ‘close of day’, and ‘dying of the light’ as a way to bring the readers to the idea of death. However, Thomas’ poem has a frustrated and angry tone in it as he pleads with his father not to give up his fight for life. The ‘dying of the light’ is a powerful metaphor. Thomas uses it to describe the moment between life and death that his father is in. He also uses ‘close of day’ as a way to indicate that death is creeping in as the life ended. This is another way for him to talk about death indirectly. Lastly, he mentions ‘good night’ to refer to sleep. Again, this could invoke the idea of death because when a person sleeps, he or she might not wake up the next day.
In "Sonnet 73", there exists a melancholy tone that engulfs the entire poem. This may be intended because Shakespeare wants to express that death is a not a happy ending. He compresses time down from a season, to a day, then to a moment to convey his message that youth is fading. He uses death’s second self, night, twilight, ‘sunset fadeth’ and the ‘glowing of fire’ as a mechanism to manifest death. By using these metaphors, Shakespeare indirectly talks about how sleep, darkness, sunset, and the dying of a fire lead to the theme of death. For example, Shakespeare refers to death’s second self as sleep to indicate that there is a possibility that a person may not wake up again when fallen asleep. He also uses ‘sunset fadeth’ to specify the last state of life that a person is in.
Similarly, in "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", Thomas uses ‘good night’, meteors, ‘close of day’, and ‘dying of the light’ as a way to bring the readers to the idea of death. However, Thomas’ poem has a frustrated and angry tone in it as he pleads with his father not to give up his fight for life. The ‘dying of the light’ is a powerful metaphor. Thomas uses it to describe the moment between life and death that his father is in. He also uses ‘close of day’ as a way to indicate that death is creeping in as the life ended. This is another way for him to talk about death indirectly. Lastly, he mentions ‘good night’ to refer to sleep. Again, this could invoke the idea of death because when a person sleeps, he or she might not wake up the next day.
Both of these poems have different approach toward death. Shakespeare’s approach is more relax and accepting because he is addressing a lover in order to get more love. As for Thomas, his approach is furious and upset as he urges his father to "curse" and fight death.
Both Shakespeare and Thomas talk about death, but their tone is different. Nevertheless, both of them effectively use metaphors to manifest death and how it could potentially affect human beings.
I like your introduction, it is catching and shows very well your opinion about death before starting with your analysis. I agree on your opinion towards Sonnet 73, but I think Thomas was not childish. Everyone knows that one day we will die, and i think Thomas was no exception. What makes him tell his father to resist is because he is not dying from old age, it is because he is dying of a disease that is taking him before his real time came. You should have talked about the structure of the poems, and how the authors used it to portray their opinion towards death.
ReplyDeleteYour introduction is good, but I think your second paragraph could have made a little more sense to be an introduction paragraph. You do an excellent job of contrasting Shakespeare and Thomas. I like that you pointed out Shakespeare's use of fire as a symbol of aging and I fully agree that he accepted death as inevitable and unavoidable. I don't think I would say that Thomas was "childish", I think "juvenile" and "ignorant" are more appropriate words. I like that you used feelings to describe Thomas' conflict with his father's death. Overall, I think you make good points, but you probably could have used a little more concrete evidence.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about both poems focusing on the theme of old age and its effect on humans, but i do not necessary agree with on the idea that death should be taken as a friend. Death is something that is inevitable and yes we can not stop it from happening but that does not mean we should live our lives excepting it any time soon.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Thomas is not acting childish when he pleads with his father to fight against. What person can just sit and watch their beloved parent die. I think that Thomas acted right in pleading with father to fight against death because even though his father could not have lived very long at least he wasn't just giving up he could maybe have had more time with his son if he kept fighting.