Death by Comparison from Dylan to Dickens

Death by Comparison from Dylan to Dickens

Death has forever plagued mankind. Death is the ultimate mystery, the ultimate adventure, never to be requited until one feels the finality of it. This fascination with death has carried forward with artists since the beginning. Literature, music, art, all creative forms have some measure of association with death. Death is the inevitability that no one knows about. We all face death, we all see death, we all experience death, but no one knows exactly what happens when one dies. This inevitable unknown is such that it makes it easy for one's imagination to run wild with thoughts of it. Rampant imaginations can wax poetic; find the optimism, the bleak, or even the apathetic. It is the unknown reagent associated with death that makes one so capable to cross many forms, styles, genres, and mediums. It doesn't matter how you portray your imagination of death, the sweet caress of a dear friend, or the abject horror of meeting the final enemy, the end is always the same...death. This expression of frailty, or the coming to terms with our own mortality, fuels so many artists. However, despite the many differences and perceptions that are based around death the content stays the same. Who, what, when, where, why, and how are all abstracts. The "it", the endgame, is death.

This fascination with death was exhibited by two poets from vastly different times and backgrounds. Emily Dickinson, whose "heritage shows many of those massive traits of character we associate with New England and Puritanism," (Sewall, 1974) could not be more different than her counterpart within this paper, Dylan Thomas. "Thomas undeniably has become a cult, perhaps because his poetry as well as his life went to extremes in a way that people can recognize and admire." (Ferris, 1977) A comparison of two authors' works should include a comparison of the authors themselves. These two could not be more polar opposites, despite this the similarities between their work, and I think this comes into play within the content, form, and style of their respective pieces. The theme of death is so rampant within the literary world that the demur puritan and the wild, unabashed socialite both find solace with literary genuflection of its embrace and ideal. Within Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop for Death, and Dylan's Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, you find death running rampant. However, each individual author attributes something to the theme through style, content, and form. Sometimes they differ greatly, and other times they seem to find a common ground.

It is usually stated that the content and form of a poem are inseparable. This assertion however is hardly adequate. "A less objectionable usage equates content with meaning" (Kell, 1965) Content is more closely associated with the theme of the piece, in this case death, and they way said theme is personified. Within Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop for Death the theme of death is very peaceful. "Emily Dickinson was taught Christian doctrine--not simply Christian morality but Christian theology--and she knew that the coach cannot head toward immortality, nor can one of the passengers. Dickinson here compresses two related but differing concepts: (1) at death the soul journeys to heaven (eternity), and thus the image of the carriage and driver is appropriate; and (2) the soul is immortal, and our immortality, therefore, "rides" always with us as a co passenger; it is with us because the soul is our immortal part and so may be thought of as journeying with us." (Hoepfner, 1957) Dickinson's meaning behind the theme is that death is a savior, one that takes us from the inevitable woe of life and into the eternal bliss of eternity.

Throughout Because I Could Not Stop for Death, Dickinson gives the optimistic side of death.

"And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility" (Clugston, 2010)

Here, Dickinson is giving a rapturous meaning to death. Death is an exit from the toil of life. Death is civil, a savior. Though she mentions that leisure is gone as well, the duality of labor and leisure lends to Dickinson's intent that worldly things are left behind and a better existence awaits. Dickinson wants to reinforce the idea that the speaker is comfortable with dying. Dickinson romanticizes death, "In one respect, the speaker's assertions that she 'could not stop for Death--'must be taken as the romantic protest of a self not yet disabused of the fantasy that her whims, however capricious, will withstand the larger temporal demands of the external world." (Cameron, 1979) Both the romanticism and the comfort with death are done through Dickinson's use of symbols. Death itself is a man not some amorphous entity, but a man just as any of us. Even the final resting place, as symbolized by the house, is meant to ensure comfort. Instead of the literal hole in the ground, Dickinson paints the grave as a house. A house shows a place of comfort, or rest. To Dickinson, we are helpless in the face of death, whereas Thomas is more contentious.

Dylan Thomas conveys the meaning that we are to fight death in Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. Throughout the piece Thomas is saying that we should fight death. Living is the pure essence and that death is some sort of punishment, and end to the bliss that is life. It could also be said that the underlying meaning of the poem is a selfish one. Thomas seems selfish to the end that we should fight death so that we will not lose the one's we love.

"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." (Clugston, 2010)

Thomas wants to rally, and fight, against death to keep his father. "Thomas's emotion must have a much fiercer and more complex object. He is advocating active resistance to death immediately before death, not sad mourning after it." (Westphal, 1994) This selfish contention is not perhaps in his father's best interest. However, he would rather his father fight so that he would not lose him. The fact that this poem starts out vague in its intentions, and ends with the audience being his father is important. This hope is sustained, not only for selfish reasons, but for Thomas' hope for his father and the legacy therein. In this, Thomas paints death as less ethereal and more of a controllable force. The entire poem symbolizes a need to live with intensity. The intensity