Comparing Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night and After a Time Essays

Comparing Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night and After a Time Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" and Catherine Davis' "After a Time" demand comparison: Davis' poem was written in deliberate response to Thomas'. Davis assumes the reader's familiarity with "Do Not Go Gentle," which she uses to articulate her contrasting ideas. "After a Time," although it is a literary work in its own right, might even be thought of as serious parody--perhaps the greatest compliment one writer can pay another. "Do Not Go Gentle in That Good Night" was written by a young man of thirty-eight who addresses it to his old and ailing father. It is interesting to note that the author himself had very little of his own self-destructive life left as he was composing this piece. Perhaps that is why he seems to have more insight into the subject of death than most people of his age. He advocates raging and fighting against it, not giving in and accepting it. "After a Time" was written by a woman of about the same age and is addressed to no one in particular. Davis has a different philosophy about death. She "answers" Thomas's poem and presents her differing views using the same poetic form--a villanelle. Evidently, she felt it necessary to present a contrasting point of view eight years after Thomas's death. While "Do Not Go Gentle" protests and rages against death, Davis's poem suggests a quiet resignation and acquiescence. She seems to feel that raging against death is useless and profitless. She argues that we will eventually become tame, anyway, after the raging is done. At the risk of sounding sexist, I think it interesting that the man rages and the woman submits, as if the traditi... ...much sensory suggestiveness. She gives us "things lot,' a "reassuring ruse," and "all losses are the same." Her most powerful image--"And we go striped at last the way we came"==makes its point with none of the excitement of Thomas's rage. And yet, I prefer the quiet intelligence of Davis to the high energy of Thomas. "And we go stripped at last the way we came" can give strange comfort and solace to those of us who always envied those in high places. Death is a great leveler. People are not all created equal at birth, not by a long shot. But we will bloody well all be equal when we make our final exit. Kings, pope, and heads of state will go just as "stripped" as the rest of us. They won't get to take anything with them. All wealth, power, and trappings will b left behind. We will all finally and ultimately be equal. So why rage? It won't do us any good.