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The Paradox of Death

In: English and Literature

Submitted By ttdavis2007
Words 2143
Pages 9
The Paradox of Death Death comes to us all one way or another, there is no escaping death. Our natural life’s cycle must take its course. The core focal point of this exposition is to compare and contrast the symbol of death and impermanence in the poems Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson and Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas. Each poem offers a different perspective towards accepting death. In one literary work we have someone who welcomed death submissively, in contrast to another literary work where the author is willing someone dear to him to fight against death. Together the two literary works incorporated the same theme with dissimilar points of view, ranging from the way they utilize their respective literary devices such as personification, point of view, symbolism, figure of speech, tone, mood and imagery. The unconformity of the poems “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” overshadows the parallel theme of death connecting them. The first poem I’ll discuss will be the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, which is written in the using a meter form. In agreement with Karen Silvestri, “meter in poetry is what brings the poem to life and is the internal beat or rhythm with which it is read (Silvestri, 2014)”. “Poetry is meant to be recited and the number of beats per line of spoken poetry determines the name of the rhythm, though not often seen, rhythms are named as tetrameter for four beats, (Silvestri, 2014)”. Dickinson’s poem consists of four lined stanzas. More specifically, “the initial and third line in every stanza has eight syllables, but yet, the second and fourth line of every stanza has six syllables (Clugston, 2010)”. The author’s use of meter allows the reader to understand the poem has a flow, rhythm with a particular sound. Almost like

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