Life and Its Effect on Poetry

Life is one a word with many different meanings to many people. This one word is a word that is interpreted many different ways due to one’s own opinion. One might look at life as a precious and sacred thing, while another might look at it as a horrible thing. Three different poems show that each different person looks upon life differently, but at the same time they also show that each opinion is related to one another. “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne is an example of a religious sonnet about life. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas is a poem that talks about refusing to give up life. The last poem “Resume” by Dorothy Parker is a poem about the world and how it compares to life. Even though all three of these poems seem worlds apart they are much closely related then one might think.

The poem “Death Be Not Proud” written by John Donne is actually a religious sonnet about life and death. The beginning of this poem comes off like the speaker is teasing about life and death, but towards the middle there comes a strong foundation that states that life is proud and death is not. John Donne compares death to sleeping as though it is easy and calm and nothing to be proud of, but that life is what is to

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All three of these poems basically say that life is life and that is all that is all it is ever going to be, but you can make life unique by changing things. The last poem “Resume” was unlike the other two poems, as it talked about the world in general more so then life.

The last poem by Dorothy Parker, “Resume”, is a simple poem about the world. Although “Resume” takes a different turn then “Death Not be Proud”, and “Do Not Go Into That Good Night” they are still alike. The basic theme of this poem is that life is a proud thing and death is not a mighty or proud thing, instead it is calm and powerless. Dylan’s tone in this poem is anger and the right to refuse.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas is more of a poem that states that life is something that should be fought for. The theme of this poem is not to take life for granted, fight for everything you have. This poem takes a different approach when talking about life. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” was an angry poem about refusing to give up life, however in one way or another it gave the impression that life is important and special and is worth fighting for. Even though the other two poems where not religious or a sonnet, and did not have the same opinion as John Donne they still related as the other two poems felt that life is special. The theme of this poem is that not everything is perfect, and life is no different. The whole poem is about simple things in the world that causes discomfort or harm to life itself. The speaker in this poem gives the impression that life is not something that you can just let go of, instead it is something that needs to be fought for, as it is something special.

Approximate Word count = 824
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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