The Life Cycle

The poem “That time of year thou mayst in me behold” by Shakespeare and “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas both have a theme of death and nature. In “That time of year thou mayst in me behold,“ death is compared to the nature. However, “do not go gentle into that good night” explains death by expressing the feelings of four different men and how they portray death.
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold” is a sonnet number 73. In the poem, the poet compared death of a human being to the change of weather. “When yellow leaves or none, or few, do hang” refers to the winter when all the leaves start falling. This connection has to do with the nature of death. As the leaves of the trees fall every year and new leaves grow, people in this world die and new ones are born. It is a cycle of life that no one has any control on. “As the death bed whereon it must expire, Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.” this line in the poem has a very strong meaning. One must expire that was once nourished. No one is immortal in this world, everyone who came must also leave at the end of their life cycle. The reference to “black night” also conveys the meaning of death.
“Do not go Gentle into that good night,” takes a different approach to the death and nature. Dylan Thomas, compared for men: wise mean, good men, wild men, and grave men, and how they all portray death. The meaning of this poem of opposite compare to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73. Death in this poem is not considered as natural decision. The “wise men” tried to escape for death as it was coming closer and close. The “good men” thought about the good deeds that they did in their entire life. “Wild men” did not care about they even though they knew that death is coming closer. The author tried to portray different perspective of different kind of people in this world. As compare of Sonnet 73, this poem also refer darkness to death. Light has always been a symbol of something new and a good start and darkness is a symbol of sadness and death.
Dylan Thomas, in the last four lines talked about his father. “Sad height” may refer to the death of his father. That he is not alive anymore and ask his father to bless him. Both of the poems had an imagery of nature and light and darkness. The imagery helped convey the meaning better. Both of the poems have different patterns. “Do not go gentle into that good night,” is a volatile in which some lines repeat themselves over and over again. However, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 is like a regular poem that does not have any repetition in it neither it rhyme with anything. Both of the poems have a common theme of death and its relevance with nature.