In the poems, “Do not go gentle,” by Dylan Thomas and “Because I could not stop for Death,” by Emily Dickinson, both are written around the same topic, Death. Despite that, the tones and moods of these two poems are completely different because of the different views of the authors. The difference in the tones of these poems can make the meanings of the poems really different from each other, which can lead to the readers having different views and feelings about the poem. The tones and moods of “Do not go gentle” are a little regretful or serious and encouraging because Thomas is trying to encourage these types of men to keep on fighting and not go gentle into death, as seen from the paradox, which are “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” and “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Thomas also talked about 3 out of 4 types of men and what they regret not being able to do, in stanzas 2, 3, and 4, Thomas says that these men regret not being able to do the things that they wished to do before they died, which was why they “Do not go gentle into that good night.” However, at the end of the poem, it is revealed that Thomas is writing this poem to his father, which is a grave man and encouraging him to fight and be happy before he dies as seen from stanza 5 and the last stanza, “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.,” and “And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage
against the dying of the light.” Meanwhile, Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death,” the tones and moods are calm and accepting as shown in stanza 2, “We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility –,” where she begins to trust Death more because of how gentle he is, to the point of her putting away her leisure and labor so she can finally rest in peace. The tone of the poem is considered calm and the author’s view on Death is also shown in stanza 1, “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality,” because when Death stopped for her, she was really calm and collected and thought that Death was really kind since he stopped for her when she was busy with life. In short, the tones and moods of Dylan Thomas’ poem and Emily Dickinson’s poem are really different from each other, since in “Do not go gentle,” Thomas encourages people to fight against Death, while in “Because I could not stop for Death,” Dickinson, wrote about how she thinks that Death is kind and would go calmly with him. I agree more with Thomas’ attitude towards death rather than Dickinson’s attitude because there are many things that I wish to do before I die, but I know that I wouldn’t be able to do them all because life is too short and will surely feel sad about.
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