A. E. Housman's Poem To An Athlete Dying Young

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The perspective on death is different for everyone. The loss people, a community, and the world experiences has a different effect depending on the person. Dylan Thomas wrote, “Do not go into that good night” and expresses the occurrences when one dies old. He explains that when a man dies they don’t want to go and should fight death until the end, because they regret what they missed. In A.E. Housman’s poem “To an Athlete Dying Young,” he reveals when a person dies young, they get to go with the glory still shining bright. They don’t have to watch their greatness fade away slowly. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a more motivational poem that can make people change how they are living. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas is a prime example of a villanelle poem. The poem repeats lines 1 and 3 throughout the poem and has a rhyme scheme ABA, which makes the poem intriguing and puts the writer in a more advanced area of expertise. At the end of the poem you discover the speaker’s personal stake of the subject, which makes the emotional significance amplify and gives the reader a stronger tie to the poem. “Do not go gentle into that good night,/Old age should burn and rave at close of day;”(“Do Not Go…show more content…
“And you, my father, there on that sad height,”(“Do Not Go Gently” 16) the speaker’s father is dying. This line brings personal relations to the poem and understanding of the rage and desperation to get the message (fighting death to the very end) across. This desperation becomes more heart-wrenching, because death is inevitable. The poem still describes death as “that good night” and “wise men at their end know dark is right,”(“Do Not Go Gentle”4) which means that Thomas is not fully opposing death. He is saying that if you have any regrets, don’t just slip away into death. Live out life at your very best until death comes, do not just accept your
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