Donne and Thomas: In the Face of Death Essay

John Donne and Dylan Thomas belong not only to two different ages more(prenominal)over also to two different schools of poetry. The school of John Donne, more popularly known as the metaphysical poets, had their unique aesthetics and stressed on thought, rational, unconventional and even shocking arguments, reflection provoking tomography to grab the attention of the reader as opposed to the more romantic trend and stock imagination found in Elizabethan poetry. In the sonnet, end Be Not Proud, the poet uses all the strategies common of Metaphysical poetry to present his unique vision about death.Dylan Thomas on the other spate is a true poet of the heart, and his presentation too is distinctive. In the verse, Do Not Go Gentle Into That cheeseparing Night, written to voice his deepest feelings confronted with his fathers mortality and weakness in face of death, each(prenominal) and every word of the poet burns with a passion, in the original religious connotation of the word . Donne refuses to grant stopping point the status of the Mighty and dreadfull, the standard Elizabethan epithets. The poet then proceeds, by means of arguments that invert the general Elizabethan idea of death, to take a highly optimistic stance.For instance, that Sleep and Rest are considered to be devastations second self (Harrison, Shakespeare, Sonnet 73) leads Donne to conclude that Death, too must be a character reference of great pleasure, just as sleep is From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, The belief, that the best of men fall victim to the ravage of Death, is used by the poet to argue that, then, in a moral universe, Death can never be something horrible.The poet further undercuts Deaths unnerving stature by associating it with war, sickness and poison and brings to test its power by calling it a buckle down to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men. Armed wits such arguments and armored with the poets unflinching trust in eternal life after Death, the poet goes on to state the ultimate antithesis in the final couplet of the sonnet One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more death, thou shalt die. Dylan Thomas, on the other hand, implicitly accepts the power that Death wields over clement existence.The periphrasis or the metaphors that the poet uses in his poem to talk about death provide evidence to that in the entire poem, about Death, the word Death is used only once Death is referred to either as the good night or the expiry(p) of the light. Like Donne however, Dylan Thomas too is against a passive acceptance of death, against trembling in worship confronted with the formidable shadow of death. But being a modernist, incapable of sharing the older poets optimism or faith in eternal life after death, incapable of refuting the truth of Death, his poem sounds like an existential yell against the horror of it all.Dylan Thomas thus, like the protagon ists of Albert Camus The Plague, tries to find a value and meaning of life in the human rebellion against Death. The oft repeated refrain sums up the feelings of this poet, face to face with death, incapable of all meaning(prenominal) action but rage Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. However, both Dylan Thomas and John Donne, poets belonging to different eras and schools are one in their rebellion against a passive acceptance of the horror that is Death.Although, Donnes argument stems from a faith that might not be shared universally although Thomass Rage against Death is undercut again and again with jeering and sarcasm originating from a recognition of the meaninglessness of it all in face of this all-consuming truth nevertheless their refusal to electric discharge in front of the might of Death are homage to the indestructible human spirit. Works Cited Camus, Albert. The Plague. juvenile York Vintage, 1991 Harrison,G. B. ed. Sha kespeare, The Complete Works. New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta Harcount, Brace and World, Inc, 1968.