Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Analysis
Death is a huge part of who humans are. We all die, albeit in different ways and circumstances. Death has been portrayed throughout history in many ways. One such way is through poetry and three poems which entertain the thought of death are Ozymandias, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and Dulce Et Decorum Est. The authors of these poems have used a variety of different poetry techniques in order to convey their view on the theme of death with different degrees of success, as will be outlined below.
The first technique which is makes the theme of death prominent throughout all three poems is the use of symbols and metaphors. Ozymandias is the most successful at using symbols to represent death. The whole poem can be considered a symbolic metaphor however, the main metaphor is of a crumbling statue. Proud …show more content…
This can be seen as a symbol of how death is a loss of existence, legacy and memories. The crumbling statue in Ozymandias successfully conveys that, in death, nothing continues. Furthermore, both Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and Dulce et Decorum Est use metaphors and symbols in a similar way. The phrase “wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight” in Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is a metaphor of passing youth and, later on, death. ‘The sun in flight’ refers to youth which doesn’t last long and passes as those who grow old desperately try to remain young and vibrant, albeit with no success. This symbol denotes that if we do not make the most of our youth we might as well be dead. The last metaphor or symbol to be analysed is found in Dulce et Decorum Est. The whole poem is about WWI and the main metaphor in it is “Under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. The green sea part of the metaphor is referring the gasses and chemicals which were used during the war. Chemical warfare was used during WWI for the first time and it killed millions of soldiers. It would have caused great fear among
The first technique which is makes the theme of death prominent throughout all three poems is the use of symbols and metaphors. Ozymandias is the most successful at using symbols to represent death. The whole poem can be considered a symbolic metaphor however, the main metaphor is of a crumbling statue. Proud …show more content…
This can be seen as a symbol of how death is a loss of existence, legacy and memories. The crumbling statue in Ozymandias successfully conveys that, in death, nothing continues. Furthermore, both Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and Dulce et Decorum Est use metaphors and symbols in a similar way. The phrase “wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight” in Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is a metaphor of passing youth and, later on, death. ‘The sun in flight’ refers to youth which doesn’t last long and passes as those who grow old desperately try to remain young and vibrant, albeit with no success. This symbol denotes that if we do not make the most of our youth we might as well be dead. The last metaphor or symbol to be analysed is found in Dulce et Decorum Est. The whole poem is about WWI and the main metaphor in it is “Under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. The green sea part of the metaphor is referring the gasses and chemicals which were used during the war. Chemical warfare was used during WWI for the first time and it killed millions of soldiers. It would have caused great fear among