Death For All, All For Death

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Recommended: With emphasis on death as a theme, examine Dylan Thomas' death poem

Many people usually never think about the way they will die or how they will be remembered. No one will ever exactly know what to expect but creative writers help readers understand the inevitable path everyone will eventually take. In the poem “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” by Dylan Thomas, he explains how death will happen to everyone but the memory of those dead will be remembered. Similar to the powerful poem by Thomas, Michael Robbins’ recent poem “Not Fade Away” reminds the readers about the music artists whom have died and their legacies that carry on through different generations but in the end he is afraid to die. Both poems are inspired by older works of literature and share the common theme of death with their use of imagery despite not having similar characteristics like rhythm and rhyme scheme.
First, both poems are influenced by older pieces of literature dating back to the bible and the ninth century. Thomas’ uses a repeated phrase, “and death shall have no dominion”, to send a powerful message for readers to understand that death will not be the conqueror. The meaning of “and death shall have no dominion” says that death will not conquer all, so one should have hope. This phrase “And death shall have no dominion” comes from “a bible reference to the book of Romans 6:9, in which Paul says that ‘knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him’” (Cabral 84). Writing poetry with familiar phrases from the bible or other works of literature allows poems to reach a larger audience and become relatable. Robbins does not use a repeated phrase like Thomas, however the last sentence in his poem, “Timor mortis contrurbat me” is derived from the medieval poem “Lament for t...

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...m, “Not Fade Away”, he does not use rhyming but is influenced by older works of poetry like Thomas’ poem. Dylan Thomas is dead now but he is still remembered by many aspiring writers in this generations. Michael Robbins is still living but his publish writing will be remember for his creative thinking.

Works Cited

Cabral, Gladir da Silva. "Dylan Thomas's Poem" And death shall have no dominion"." Todas as
Letras-Revista de Língua e Literatura 7.1 (2009).
Crater, Theresa L. "In their death they were not divided': literary death as liberation." Journal of
Evolutionary Psychology (2002): 149+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 7 Mar.
2014.
Cunningham, J. V. "Logic and Lyric." Modern Philology 51.1 (1953): 33-41. Print.
Spargo, R. Clifton. "Forever Stamped on Our Memory: Janis Joplin." The Huffington Post. The
Huffington Post, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.

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