Preview

Compare And Contrast Charge Of The Light Brigade And Dylan Thomas

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
223 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare And Contrast Charge Of The Light Brigade And Dylan Thomas
The poets Dylan Thomas and Alfred, Lord Tennyson both have well known poems about death, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and The Charge of the Light Brigade. Although both poems are beautifully written, the two poets describe death very differently with figurative language. Dylan Thomas describes death more as a fight between the darkness of death and the light of life, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson describes death as something that just happens and that it is unavoidable. Dylan Thomas shows the fight between light and dark when he says,”Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light”(Lines 18-19). He is telling his dying father here to fight against “the dying of the light” or to fight the death overcoming

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    A similarity between the poems ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘the falling leaves’ is how they both focus all attention on the destructiveness and horror of war. In "The Charge of the Light Brigade" the destructiveness of war is highlighted through the use of imagery. One example of this was when Tennyson was describing the Brigade as riding "Into the jaws of Death/Into the mouth of Hell" which shows that perhaps even though they knew they were going to die they rode onwards anyway, the image itself of "the jaws of Death" is quite scary and adds to the impact that Tennyson is trying to get across. While Tennyson uses quite horrific imagery, Cole is a lot more subtle in the way she describes the death toll in her poem; she actually compares them to leaves and snowflakes. The metaphors "I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree" and "They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon" compare the likeness between leaves, snowflakes and soldiers - leaves fall in autumn, snowflakes fall in winter and soldiers fall in war, in the case of the soldier by fall the poet is trying to get across the fact that they die and just how impermanent the soldiers are as leaves die after one year and snow will only usually last about a week, the poet is showing the shortness of the soldiers' lives and how horrific it is. However at the same time it may actually show that she respects the soldiers for what they are doing and believes that war is just a part of life, like leaves falling from trees and snowflakes falling from clouds are. It also shows that she believes the soldiers should be remembered. When we think of leaves and snowflakes we think of them as harmless, by comparing the soldiers to leaves and snowflakes the poet it implying that the soldiers are harmless and innocent.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Both poets use imagery in order for their thoughts and feelings to be portrayed; this shows what the leaders did to the soldiers during the war. In The Charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Tennyson personifies death and hell into some sort of monsters that the soldiers can’t escape from because they had ‘jaws of death’ and a ‘mouth of hell’. This shows the reader that the soldiers were seen as not having a chance from the very start and that maybe they were pushed into serving for their country by their s called leaders because they felt as though they needed to do what they thought was right when really it wasn’t right at all. Both the words ‘death’ and ‘hell’ bring emotions to the readers that are unnatural and not expected, it shows us that the poet wanted the reader to see what war does to a person and that the only option is death which shows that not much thought goes into how loved one and families will cope after the tragedy’s because the leaders failed to think about anybody else but them concluding in them putting their selves before others letting them get hurt. we also see that Alfred Tennyson wanted to show the reader what these heroes went through and what they had to suffered each and everyday due to their leaders telling them to go forward and fight, he does this by describing how…

    • 2520 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    While both of these poems have the overall themes of Mortality, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” is about Death itself, while “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is about the act of Dying and the end of Life. While they are both lyric poems Dylan Thomas’ poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” has a clear morale or message. It states that one should “not go gentle into that good night.” and “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” In other words to die fighting, not lying down. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson has no such message readily apparent. Instead of presenting a clear morale “Because” tells a story, in past tense, of what one supposes a kind of afterlife, and the events that took place after the speaker died. The fact that the form of the poems are nothing alike also sets them apart.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death seems to be a popular subject for literature. Death’s many unknowns may cause this—not all are sure of what comes after, and scientists cannot study its effects. Therefore, writers take a stab at describing and explaining it. Emily Dickinson and John Donne both do this in their respective poems. While they have the same topics, these two poems have plenty of differences as well. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “Death, be not Proud” address the same topics but focus on different aspects of them, have drastically different styles, and flow very differently.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is a constant presence in life that can not be escaped and is experienced by everyone. Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” and both deal with different perspectives of death. Thomas’s poem looks at death from an external perspective of watching a person die where Dickinson’s poem looks at death through the perspective of a person experiencing death. These perspectives on death show the acceptance of death and eternity and death and disparity of life ending.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poems of Dickinson “Because I could not stop for Death”, Housman “To an Athlete Dying Young, and Thomas “Do not go gentle into that good night” were written in different time period or era, it also seemed to refer to perceptions death; however, these poems could be referring as life experiences. Dickinson in her poem it seemed to have a connection with death the afterlife, Housman expressed acceptance towards, and in Thomas’s poem the author seemed to express desired to be alive and to fight death.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” is an example of the poetic form villanelle, which is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. “Do not go gentle into that good night” expresses the inevitability of death, and how old men should face it, but the speaker never talks of death directly. He uses certain tactics such as, metaphors to really get his message across to the reader. Though the poem contends with auxiliary themes such as wisdom and family, we see its primary theme, the necessity of facing age and death, through its use of tone, repetition, and metaphors.…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” Thomas portrays the idea of an individual approaching death and that one should hang on until the end. They should not give up or go easy, they should fight, even though they know that death is inevitable. It could come at any moment and it is completely unavoidable. Death and dying are presented and expressed in many aspects of this poem, as Thomas depicts the idea that although death is inevitable, those near their end should not give up without a fight.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is an appeal by a son to his dying father. The son wants his father to fight against death arguing that even on our death beds, “old age should burn and rage at the close of day”.(line 2) The main character in W.D. Valgardson’s short story “God is Not a Fish Inspector” does not share this perspective on life and death.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe wrote many poems about death, and showed different ways that death could be viewed. The Puritans didn’t talk about death. They believed that you lived out your life on Earth to the best of your ability and then you died. During the Romantics, poets started thinking about death, how to cope with it, and different ways death affects people. Emily Dickinson also wrote multiple poems about death, but her poems were very different from Poe’s. She wrote about death like Poe, but Poe wrote about it with a very dark tone and made death seem scarier and more eery. Dickinson wrote about death in many different tones. She did not always talk about death as something to fear, but as something that will happen eventually, and something to accept and…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Poems

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages

    At first glance, both poems seem to be read as a death related piece of writing. Though, this is where the contrast part comes in. In Thomas’ poem, he tells the reader about resisting death as best as you can and sees death as something we can overcome or try to avoid with all of our might and strength. He says if we can “Rage, rage against the dying of the light (Thomas 3),” then we can lead ourselves away from death. He then goes saying that death is the worst thing that could happen to anyone and if we can shy away from it as much as possible, it’ll be for the best. In Davis’ poem “After a Time,” she explains to the reader, if death is upon you, you should accept it and let it take you away. She explains in her poem that “we go stripped at last the way we came (Davis 3),” as in, we leave this world the same as we came into it. Though Davis has different views on how we should deal with death. She “answers” Thomas’ poem with the same amount of thought process and structure of the idea.…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do Not Go Gentle

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The first stanza introduces the main message of the poem: to fight death at all costs. This is apparent when he says “Old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas). In this sentence, he encourages the reader to believe that death should not be quietly accepted, rather, it should be honorably fought. He expresses this idea through the repetition of ‘rage’ and the connotation of ‘burn.’ The word ‘burn’ produces imagery of fire-This can be interpreted as the author telling the dying to continue to burn with life like a fire. The repetition of rage highlights how passionately he wants people to carry on and fight, even if it is difficult to do so.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson Diction

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There is a multitude of poems written with the theme of death, be it in a positive light or negative. Some poets write poems that depict Death as a spine-chilling inevitable end, others hold respect for this natural occurrence. In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, diction and personification is utilized to demonstrate the speaker’s cordial friendship with Death.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both of the poems, “ To an Athlete dying young” and “ Do not go gentle into the night” are referring to the subject of death but show different outlooks and seem to explore the helplessness with growing old and the progress towards death. Although the poems are against death each have a different way of how it should be approached. Both poems show views on how people should deal with death while one sees death as a misfortune, the other sees death as a battle with an enemy that needs to be defeated. “To an Athlete dying young” A.E Housman shows that those dying at the rise of their glory or youth are lucky. Everyone fears death at some point in life. As people grow older they realize that their life was short lived. Both Housman's and Thomas' poems are about death. Also each poem describes death as opponent. Both poems reflect their authors' life experience. Thomas uses irony, villanelle form and symbolism, while Housman uses the elements of irony, multiple meanings and rhythmic tone. An example of irony in To an Athlete Dying Young is the way death is viewed. Usually death is never viewed as a joyous or uplifting event, but here death is proven to be an advantage, as it helps the young athlete make his glory permanent. "Do Not Go Gentle into The Night", by Dylan Thomas is a cry from a dying man's son to arm his reserve and fight against death. Thomas begins by presenting the example of wise men that fight their death valorously, despite knowing that defeat is fateful. Good men also "rage against the dying of the light" is a suggestion that Thomas hopes that his father will take to battle against death. Each man Thomas describes in his poem serves as a character for the type of man Thomas needs his father to be on his death bed. Thomas describes the goods of wise men, who refuse to surrender to death before they accomplish their goals. Good men are next brought up as a example for his father's…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Themes

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the poem he continually discusses that death is rage, a curse, etc. These inevitable fears are first introduced in the first stanza when he states, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” This first stanza opens with saying one should not give into death, and when it comes, it should come with a full life. These ideas are featured once again in the last stanza. The author reveals the true purpose about the poem in this stanza, stating, “And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” In this stanza he is saying that he believes his father should fight, and that he does not care what his father has to do to fight. Giving up the fight is like being a lawn mower in a field of gardeners, in the end those who fight have a greater…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays