mortality

William Shakespeare’s “That time of year thou mayst in me behold” and Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” both discuss the issue of death and mortality. While both poems discuss this theme, they both approach the subject in a different manner. “That time of year thou mayst in me behold” portrays death as a natural, peaceful process of the life cycle. In contrast to this approach, “Do not go gentle into that good night” discusses the idea that death is a struggle, and you should fight against it.



“That time of year thou mayst in me behold” is a sonnet that was written in the 1500’s by the very famous Mr. William Shakespeare. In lines 1-6 of the sonnet, Shakespeare compares death to nature. He describes the fall season as being delicate and beautiful but natural. Over the fall season, leaves slowly fall off of the branch one by one, until eventually one day they are all gone. At one point in time, the branches had been full of life, but the liveliness . Shakespeare uses this seasonal metaphor to describe the effects of death.



In the second part of his sonnet, he brings together the whole idea of how fall and death are interrelated. The sonnet uses words such as “expire” of “the glowing fire.” He describes the “the glowing of fire” burning away into “ashes.” What he really means is that slowly you die and your once liveliness fades away. In the last two lines of the sonnet, he wraps up the comparison by saying that life must eventually end.



Dylan Thomas’ villanelle “Do not go gentle into that good night” takes an opposite approach to death. The format of his poem helped emphasize the main points that he was trying to make. He repeatedly described different types of men: grave, wise, wild, and good. Each type of man handled death differently. The “grave men” go into the falling night of war. The “wise men” fought against their death even though they knew it was their time to go. The “wild men” knew their death was coming, but they did not think about it. Those men just went on their very way. The “good men” say goodbye to all of the good they have done in their lives. Thomas wraps up the villanelle by comparing men to a father figure. He ends the villanelle in begging his dad to fight against the light and stay with him. He wants him to struggle, so that he can have more time.



Even though both of the poems discuss the same idea, they are written differently and talk about different ways of approaching the idea of death and mortality. You can look at death as either a natural part of life cycle. In contrast, you can think of morality as something you never want to come. You can think of life as something you want to hold on to and never let go. Death could take this away from you.




to be continued....