Elegies Ben Johnson's and Dylan Essay

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Dylan Thomas's 1951 poem, "Do not go gentle into that good night," like Johnson's poem, is an elegy to someone he loves -- his father -- but unlike Johnson's poem, at the time the poem was written before his father passed away, which allows him to express and explain his fears to the man he wrote the poem for. In "Do not go gentle into that good night," Thomas urges his father to fight to live, a stark contrast from Johnson's lament for death to escape the "world's and flesh's rage" (Johnson line 7). Thomas writes, "Old age should burn and rave at close of day," in supplication to his father in order to get him to fight against "the dying of the light," which can be taken as a metaphor for a person's transition through life into death (Thomas line 2-3). Thomas then proceeds to list different types of men, who although are different in many respects, fight against the inevitable. These different men include "wise men [who] at their end know dark is right," "[g]ood men, the last wave by, crying how bright/Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay," "[w]ild men who caught and sang the sun in flight," and "[g]rave men, near death, who see with blinding sight" (lines 4, 7-8, 10, 13). In a way, each of these men, who have fought to live as long as they can, are metaphors for the man Thomas believes his father to be. It is evident that Thomas idolizes his father as he states, "And you, my father, there on the sad height," as though his father is on some pedestal Thomas will never be able to reach (line 16).

While Thomas spends the majority of the poem attempting to get his father to realize that he needs to fight for his life, the closing two lines provide the most insight into Thomas's fears.

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Thomas pleads, "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray," a supplication that can be interpreted in two distinct ways. In the first interpretation, Thomas's curse would be to lose his father while his father would be blessed with death; in the second interpretation, Thomas would be blessed with his father's continued existence while his father would be cursed with the pain and agony he is enduring from his illness. It is through these opposing interpretations that the reader is able to comprehend the emotional turmoil Thomas is experiencing, however, despite his personal insecurities, he still wants his father to fight to live and, "not go gentle into that good night./Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (lines 18-19).

Johnson and Thomas are able to express their emotions of pain, loss, and fear through their poetry and allow their readers to comprehend their state of mind at the time the poems were written. Each poet is able to use metaphors of the things they value most -- poetry and different characteristics of men, respectively -- to articulate the extent to which they are affected by the loss of a son and imminent loss of a father, while at the same time creating timeless poems.

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