Sonnet and Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night

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Sonnet and Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night

how how the writer uses the form of poetry to protest against a

situation or an attitude and reveal how successful you think he or

she is. Sonnet & Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

Sonnet by John Donne and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by

Dylan Thomas are two poems about death that seem to convey very

different messages. These poems are obviously written by two men with

two very different perceptions of death. Both poems are protest poems

and challenge ideas that would have been instilled in the writers from

an early age. Donne ,who was a priest, would have been brought up in a

society where death was feared and at a time when there was much

religious debate about where the "soul" goes after death but in his

poem he writes that death has no reason to be "proud" because it is

not so "mighty and dreadful" as people fear. This is an idea that

contrasts greatly with Thomas' poem. Thomas was brought up in a strict

religious environment and he would have been taught the ideas that are

present in Donne's poem, that death is just the "soul's delivery" and

would be like going to sleep , that death is not the end but simply a

way on towards heaven . However, Thomas' poem contradicts this idea

saying that death is something that everyone should "burn" and "rave"

against, this poem shows a very angry and resentful conception of

death. The idea behind both poems is that the authors are protesting

against death, about how death is seen and how death is treated by

people, as well as protesting against how they have been taught to

treat death which makes these poems very powerful.

Sonnet is written in the form of a sonnet which is ironic as this form

...

... middle of paper ...

...assionate style

of writing. This poem also uses imagery but not in the same way as

Sonnet, it's images are not really for the reader to relate to, they

are fantastic, they do not really seem real but that is the point,

death to Thomas is something unknown and something to dread. Thomas'

poem seems much more messy than Sonnet, it is contradictory and it is

not easy for the reader to understand, they must study it in more

depth to get an idea of what it is really about,

this however only makes the poem more interesting and realistic

because it seems to be straight from Thomas' mind , a jumble of

thoughts that seems just to have spilled onto the page. These two

poems are forms of protest and both authors have shown that poetry is

an excellent way to speak out because these poems are persuasive and

convincing arguments for both their very different views.

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