Deaths Fragile Pathway

Deaths Fragile Pathway

Life is fragile, death is part of life. The poem "Do not go Gentle into That Good Night" speaks this in abundance. "Used to Live Here Once" is also about death and the fragile state it left one person in. These two, a poem and a short story combine in ways that show neither death nor the leading up to it are peaceful and can leave you frustrated and in a whirlwind of emotions. These two pieces do a wonderful job of showing us our vulnerability in both approaching death and life afterwards. Let us explore both of these literary wonders.

Jean Rhys

"Her birth name was Gwendolyn Rees Williams. She was born in the West Indies to a Creole mother and a Welsh father. She completed some schooling in England, married, and lived in Europe. She was supported in her writing by the famous English author Ford Maddox Ford, with whom she had an affair that ended bitterly. Rhys is recognized most for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), which presents the plot of Charlotte's Brontë's Jane Eyre from the point of view of the mad woman who is married to the novel's hero. Being called a "white nigger" while growing up in the West Indies, she was aware of mistreated and helpless females. She often portrayed their needs and dilemmas in her writings," (Clugston, R. W. Sect. 7.4). Knowing about Rhys helps understand the poetry that she writes and why she writes the way that she does. This will help understand the poem that I am referencing in this paper.

Dylan Thomas

"Thomas supported himself as an actor, reporter, reviewer, scriptwriter, and with various odd jobs. When he was twenty-two years old, he married Caitlin McNamara, by whom he had two sons, Llewellyn and Colm, and a daughter, Aeron. After his marriage, Thomas moved to the fishing village of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire."

"To support his growing family, Thomas was forced to write radio scripts for the Ministry of Information (Great Britain's information services) and documentaries for the British government. He also served as an aircraft gunner during World War II (1939-45; a war fought between Germany, Japan, and Italy, the Axis powers; and England, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States, the Allies). After the war he became a commentator on poetry for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In 1950 Thomas made the first of three lecture tours through the United States--the others were in 1952 and 1953--in which he gave more than one hundred poetry readings. In these appearances he half recited, half sang the lines in his "Welsh singing" voice."

"Thomas's poetic output was not large. He wrote only six poems in the last six years of his life. A grueling lecture schedule greatly slowed his literary output in these years. His belief that he would die young led him to create "instant Dylan"--the persona of the wild young Welsh bard, damned by drink and women that he believed his public wanted. When he was thirty-five years old, he described himself as "old, small, dark, intelligent, and darting-doting-dotting eyed ... balding and toothlessing."

"During Thomas's visit to the United States in 1953, he was scheduled to read his own and other poetry in some forty university towns throughout the country. He also intended to work on the libretto (text) of an opera for Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) in the latter's California home. Thomas celebrated his thirty-ninth birthday in New York City in a mood of gay exhilaration, following the extraordinary success of his just-published Collected Poems. The festivities ended in his collapse and illness. On November 9, 1953, he died in St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. Some reports attribute his death to pneumonia brought on by alcoholism, others to encephalopathy, a brain disease. His body was returned to Laugharne, Wales, for burial," (Dylan 2004). Knowing these things about Dylan will help you understand why he wrote his poems the way that he did and help you understand his poetry better. Especially the poem that is being compared and contrast in this paper.

The Contrast and Comparison

If we break "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" down by stanzas and analyze it that way it will be easier. So the first Stanza is the first three lines and from them you can tell that the person speaking is telling someone to fight to the end of the day, the last day of his life. Fight for the "light" to stay on longer. By using "rage" he wants them to fight as hard as they can. Stanza 2: Just because you know it's your time doesn't mean you have to accept it without putting up a fight, you still have a lot of living to in this life. Stand up and fight - Do not go gentle into death. Stanza 3: These men are yelling they want to stay out on the sea, how beautiful it is and not wanting to be the waves crashing against the shoreline. Like life continuing in its beauty and the wave is death crashing into them. The green bay could be the living seas you are floating in with all its life. Rage - fight against death as hard as you can. Stanza 4: "Wild men" could be men who fought against death and won. The suns flight would be its line in the sky and when it set would be when they grieved for those who did not win the fight against death. Fight death with everything you have. Stanza 5: These men, who even though they know their death is imminent, they are willing to fight, to go out in a blaze of glory. The way they want to, still fighting against the light going out forever. Stanza 6: The person speaking is now talking to their father saying to him that where ever he is looking at him from to please cry. Bless him, or curse him with his tears, but either way do something please. Through even begging him to bless or curse him with tears, he still is begging him to fight with all that he has left in him, and to not go gentle into that good night.

There is a certain helplessness associated with growing old and accepting death and watching someone you love die. The speaker of this poem wants this person to fight it rather than accept death and move on with its acceptance. The speaker of the poem is extremely frustrated and going through a series of emotions regarding death and he is using them to tell this person to fight death with all of their might instead of "Going Gentle into That Good Night."

Analyzing "I Used to Live Here Once" will be a little easier since we don't have to break it down so small and then we can compare and contrast these two literary works.

"She was standing by the river looking at the stepping stones and remembering each one. There