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Essay / Comparative Analysis of Poems by Emily Dickinson and Dylan Thomas
“Because I Couldn't Stop to Die” is one of Emily Dickinson's best-known poems and was composed around 1863. Dickinson, a prominent literary figure, often uses the theme of death in her poems and wrote this poem taking inspiration from a nearby cemetery. In the poem, a speaker recounts how she was visited by “Death,” personified as a “nice” gentleman, and taken for a ride in his carriage. This journey takes the speaker through the symbols of different stages of life, before stopping at what is most likely her own grave. Much of the poem's power comes from its refusal to provide easy or simplistic answers to life's greatest mystery – "what happens when people die" and the poem can be read as anticipation of a heavenly Christian afterlife. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The major themes of the poem are mortality, death, immortality, and the cyclical nature of life and death. Love and spirituality are the minor themes. The poem is divided into six quatrains. The rhyme scheme is ABCB, but the poet has taken liberties with this pattern and does not strictly observe the exact rhyme in this poem. The meter is much more consistent. The first and third lines are written in iambic tetrameter while the second and fourth in iambic trimeter. Emily Dickinson uses irony, personification, and metaphor to make the poem more intriguing. The symbols like carriage, children, fields, house and sunset can be seen in the poem. “Don't Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is the most famous poem by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. It was published in his 1952 poetry collection, “In Country Sleep, And Other Poems.” This poem is a son's plea to his dying father. Although the poem is dedicated to Thomas' father, David John Thomas, it contains a universal message. He suggests that every man must leave his mark in life and his father didn't do that. The poem encourages the dying – the sick and the elderly – to fight courageously against death. The poem also recognizes the dynamism and energy of human life, even though life is fragile and short. In “Because I Couldn't Stop to Die,” Dickinson shows us a sweet and gentle death by personifying it and using capital letters. In doing so, she transforms this usually hated aspect of life into a kind man. He then becomes Dickinson's companion and accompanies her until they arrive at a "house which seemed a swelling of the ground". The reader then understands that it is his tomb. The use of this metaphor suggests that this death is not an enemy, but a kind place to rest and a friend who can offer comfort. Dylan Thomas, on the other hand, uses not personification but metaphor as a way of approaching death in "Don't Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Because he refers to death only as "this good night", this leaves room for imagination, meaning that death becomes something unknown and - unlike Dickinson's portrait - an unknown to the drive. In Thomas's eyes, we must fear death and fight against it. Meanwhile, Dickinson's message is different, she thinks we should accept it. She wants us to “go gently into that good night” because she thinks there is no point in “[raging] against the dying of the light.” According to her, we should accept death because it is inevitable, and to rebel against it would be foolish. Keep.