Dickinson
Flaming Hope
There are a number of points of comparison that exist between Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" and Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Both of these poems are highly similar in terms of their content, which thematically detail various aspects of death and dying. Some motifs are shared between each of these poetic works as well, such as the literal and symbolic focus on sunlight and light in general that are found within both manuscripts. But where the poems primarily converge from one another is in the poet's attitude and regard for the inevitable -- death. Whereas Dickinson's work suggests a sort of quiet assent to death, Thomas's poem argues staunchly against such compliant acceptance and urges people to rally as much as they can against their inevitable end.
Due to this principle distinction between both of these poems, it is quite interesting to compare how they utilize one of the motifs shared in common by the author:...
The setting sun and the impending darkness that follows it has long represented the end of life and the beginning of the eternal sleep of death that subsequently occurs. In Dickinson's poem, in which she likens an impending death to a final carriage ride with a personified form of Death, the sun is used to imply that death is coming, which the following quotation indicates.
We passed the school where the children played,
Their Lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun (Dickinson).
It is highly significant that the sun is setting in the author's work, because a sunset is a common metaphor for the end of one's life. However, what is most notable about this work is the staid sense of calm that characterizes these verses, in which the author has "put away/My labour, and my leisure too." By ceasing to work or to have fun, the poem's narrator has willingly accepted…
