Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night And Australia, 1970

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Rage against Death in Dylan Thomas’ "Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night", and Judith Wright’s "Australia, 1970"

Mortality is a subject often contemplated in both traditional and modern poetry. Traditionally, death has been viewed as a great leveler of people, and as a frightening, yet noble experience that is best approached with a quiet, dignified, Christ-like acceptance. In the work of some modern poets such as Dylan Thomas and Judith Wright, however, the message is a different one altogether. These poets advise the dying to not assume the role of the martyr, teaching by quiet example; rather, the dying are instructed to "rage, rage against the dying of the light" (Thomas) and "die like the tigersnake" (Wright) in order to send their …show more content…

Both father and son know that his life is rapidly coming to a close, and Thomas begs his father not to carry the emotional baggage of this world, similar to the "lightning" spoken of earlier, into the next world by dying a quiet, dignified death. The goal of the author is to put all emotion felt between the two men, whether it be positive or negative, out in the open, so the old man may die disencumbered and both men will come to a fuller understanding of each other and themselves.

In Judith Wright’s "Australia, 1970", the author gives much the same advice as Dylan Thomas does in "Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night", only in the case of Wright, her advice is not to an individual person, but to the physical land of her native Australia. However, while Thomas counsels those at the end of their natural life cycle, Wright instructs a land that is, in effect, being prematurely murdered by its

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