And Death Shall Have No Dominion Notes

of their humanity. Furthermore, the references to “dead time” and the “night” foreshadow the great loss that pervades this play (2.3. 99).

In line 5 the idea of life and death are introduced using antithesis. The voice states that, “leaf blooms, burns red before delighted eyes.”, and is replied by the echo, “Dies” (Pack). The blooming leaf can be interpreted as either a blooming flower, which often represent life or beginnings, or as a blooming page of writing which follows the previous advice of the echo and the same metaphor as the flower. By the echo telling the voice dies, it is telling the voice that everything comes and goes, lives and dies.

Throughout this poem there are multiple ways Hall connects the poem to its core meaning. Located within the title, the word ‘dead’ is used to describe the machine. Being dead is the ultimate end of a life and that uncertainty of death sparks fear among many people. The inclusion of this certain word is used to set the tone of the poem as dark and gloomy and obtain the readers interest. Another method used by Hall to convey the theme of death was through imagery. The entire second stanza is a description of the pilot’s skeleton strapped within the crashed plane. Having such a graphic image portrayed, Hall is able to essentially shock his reader with the gruesomeness that death produces. One of the last things the reader may decipher from this poem is that life, just like war, is a trap. Within the third stanza, the pilot is said to be taking a train to work and is “held/ by the firm webbing” of the train. The webbing infers that the pilot, although not trapped in his plane, is trapped in the roles put forth by society.

The speaker says, “…older than the flow of human blood in my veins” (Line 1). Blood is only developed when a fetus is being grown, in the Mother, but within the blood lies DNA of their ancestors from past generations. The speaker uses human blood to relate to the fact that our blood is old and connected to our heritage because we carry their DNA inside of us. “I’ve seen its muddy bosom” (Line 9). Muddy, implies a bleak outlook of not being able to see the end. Lose of hope. “Turns all golden in the sunset” (Line 9) the ominous of a sparse future comes to an end with the sunset signifying hope and a new beginning. The association to his ancestors’ bleak past is his what binds their experiences to him.

The next four lines address death with symbolism and personification to establish the idea of not fearing the unknown future. In line 5, the voice talks about the life cycle

Thomas realizes it is human nature to take life for granted; until death approaches. Thomas wrote this poem for his father, to tell him that there is so much more for him here, living, to do. The only way to deter death is through fury and frenzy. Death comes too quickly for most people and only with "rage" can death be defied.

The first group that Thomas depicts are wise men. In the stanza’s first line, “Though wise men at their end know dark is right,” (4) he proposes that they all agree that death is the final part life’s natural cycle and that they contain the wisdom to know that they ought to accept it. Nevertheless, the next line argues that they war against it because they lack the legacy that exist long after one has succumb to death. Thomas uses line (5), “Because their words had forked no lighting” to convey that they grip onto life because they want to leave a print on the sands of time.

The next few lines, “To the last syllables of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death,”(line 21) mean all the words we have said, all the syllables recorded of our time on earth, lighted and lead the way to our death in some form or fashion.

Although Milton and Thomas draw very different conclusions about life as a whole, they share a strong sense of regret for lives wasted uselessly. Thomas brings this sentiment to his poem through his descriptions of other men; he uses "Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright/ Their frail deeds might have danced" (7-8); "Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight/ And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way" (10-11); and "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/ Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay" (13-14) as examples of who should "rage against the dying of the light." Each group of men is tormented at death by a realization of how

Contrary to Frost?s peaceful, luring diction and images, Dylan Thomas uses forceful, irate words to deter death. "No poet gives a greater sense of the feel of life" as Thomas, who provokes the reader to "rage" against death (Ackerman 407). Thomas conveys a resistance towards death with images of fury and fighting, as in "do not go gentle." Vivacious words as "blaze" and "burn" intensify desires to live on and to the fullest. With images of "good night" and "dying of the light," Thomas conveys death as the "end where only darkness prevails" (Savage 381). He takes his "stand within concrete, particular existence, he places birth and death at the poles of his vision" (Savage 381). "Life [for Thomas] begins at birth and ceases at death" therefore leaving no room for a previous life or an after life (Savage 381). Excessive images of anger and rage towards death exemplify the passion Thomas feels for life. His villanelle repeats the theme of living and fury through the most forceful two lines, "do not go gentle into that good night" and "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Contrasting images of light and darkness in the poem create the warmth of living and the coldness in death, so as to shun people from choosing the bleak, bitter frigidity of death.

The Poem begins with a personification of death as "kindly" (3). By doing this, the speaker introduces a portrayal on death that might have conflictions. Most of the times, death has a negative connotation. Whether it is an inevitable or tragic view, it opposes to what is seen in the poem. The speaker accepts death as a friendly invitation when the time is right, rather than something that is bound to happen. The speaker then joins immortality, personified as a passenger in a carriage. Immortality simply cannot be a passenger as it is a non-living thing. The reasoning for this could be that immortality ties together the link between the speaker and death, ultimately introducing the voyage to come. The first stanza sets a precedent of a meter to follow throughout most of the poem. The first line contains eight

Next, "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" creates an illusion of a mind becoming unstable by describing the speaker's irrationality. The speaker's irrationality is represented in the third stanza and fourth stanza. It is evident that the speaker is beginning to hear voices, which is why she states "And then I heard them lift a Box" (line 9). The voices that the speaker is hearing are beginning to take over her mind as she expresses "And creak across my Soul," which gives the reader's the illusion of the speaker losing all control. All the problems that the speaker is experiencing as a result of her mental stability are beginning to take their toll, which is evident through the statement "Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll" (line 11-12). The speaker has now fallen into a state of irrationality, and her mind has suffered enough, and consequently thoughts of suicide plague the speaker. The statement "As all the Heavens were a Bell" represents the speaker's feelings that her mind has a chance of being at peace again if she ends her existing insanity, and she must therefore act upon her suicide thoughts (line 13). The speaker is trying to convince herself to follow through with her thoughts of suicide, as clearly indicated in her statement "Wrecked, solitary, here-." The speaker

The last two lines act as a slap in the face. Every element works toward death, and the speaker almost slips into eternal rest. One can see him, putting the

This appears to be a reference to God, and they expect to see a display of God’s power as the speaker is brought into the hereafter. This is the only mention of the afterlife in the poem. Even this mention of the afterlife has more to do with the process of dying and being brought into heaven then what happens after death. The focus is not the unknown after death, but what happens as one dies. The event that everyone is waiting for is the death of the speaker. They want to see something amazing, and do not seem to concerned with what happens to the speaker after the passing.

In the first verse of the song, Lennon tells us how important it is for us to live in the present moment rather than worry about what is waiting for us upon our death. Even though it is normal to worry about our death, Lennon urges us to pay more attention to the sky above us rather than heaven or hell. This is especially true for those who lose out on the present moment worrying about the future.