It has many acceptances, people perceive it in different ways, there are various stories around it, but one thing is certain: nobody can escape it. This is death, the final event in people’s lives, one that cannot be avoided. The current paper treats different perspectives about death, as expressed in the works of Dylan Thomas (Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night), Wislawa Szymblorska (“On Death without Exaggeration”), Mary Oliver (“When Death Comes”), and John Donne (“Death Be Not Proud”).
One’s existence on earth includes several stages from the moment when he is born until he is dead. Hence, death is an actual stage in the life’s cycle. However, Szymblorska perceives it as a series killings, because this is its only purpose: “preoccupied with killing” (para 4). The poet observes that death is permanently looking to grasp a new somebody, but sometimes it does not succeed: “Oh, it has its triumphs,/but look at its countless defeats”. (para 5). The “missed blows” and the “repeat attempts” (para 5) indicate that death is at a constant fight with life and it sometimes looses.
Dylan Thomas is counting precisely on the fight between life and death, aiming to trick death forever, resisting it (“Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (para 1, 3, 5, 6)) by permanently engaging in vivacious activities like dancing or singing. The poet addresses people in different stages of their lives in each strophe of his poem: “old age” (para 1), “wise men” (para 2), “good men” (para 3), “wild men” (para 4), “grave men” (para 5), and in the last one he addresses his father: “And you, my father” (para 6). He is advising them “Do not go gentle into that good night” and he is encouraging them to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”. He uses metaphors like “the dying of the light”, or “that good night” for expressing death and for indicating what death represents for him: the ceasing of light and of day, the absence of living.
Thomas is not willing to accept death as a normal stage in one’s life, as Szymborska seems to perceive it. In his acceptance, death is an enemy, who took his father away. Hence, he too, is considering death a killer, who is trying to get as many men as possible, all kinds of men: old, wise, good, wild, or grave. His advises of resisting death are meant to prepare those men for a fight with death, telling them how it actions, what weapons it uses for determining them to fight it.
This attitude towards death indicates personal experiences with death, which have influenced the poet to consider it the enemy. Looking at this subject objectively, death is, indeed the enemy, everybody’s enemy. Death is a stage in life that most of us do not wish to have near us. However, as Thomas is obsessively thinking about death, he offers it a much greater power than it actually has. The omnipresence of this subject in people’s mind is actually what gives it such a great importance and such a big power.
Not attributing death too much importance, not thinking about it at each step we take, not considering that it is just around the corner and we must create strategies to mitigate or avoid it, is what should be done for living instead. Szymborska’s poem meditates precisely on this aspect. Death is the projection that we create for an event, which will eventually come, but we must not permanently reflect on it, because only then it will be stronger than us, capturing or full mind and spirit, making us fear it, and taking away precious moments of our lives.
Elaborating on Szymborska’s perspective that death’s power should not be exaggerated and arguing Thomas’ attitude of raging against death, there can be formulated a comprehensive, yet so wise philosophy of treating death: “Carpe Diem” - Live the moment. Enjoying every moment of life is the key to not letting ourselves overwhelmed with the immensity of death, with its imminence.
Only thinking about the fact that we will die at one point and that we must plan how to avoid or delay it, will steal our moments of living. Life is precious, probably just because is shorter then death, which is believed to be eternal. Life has a beginning and an end. Is good for everybody to know that, but not to solely focus on this aspect, but instead to think of how they can live each moment at the fullest.
This is an idea around which it also focuses Mary Oliver’s poem, “When Death Comes”. The author of the poem, written in the first person, accepts the fact that death will come, that it is an important event. However she does not fight it, nor does she resign to it. Instead she wants to leave from the world of living beings with a feeling of satisfaction, for having realized and accomplished everything in life. She desires to enjoy life at its fullest, to take everything that life has to offer, in order not to regret that she missed the chance of living: “When it’s over, I want to say: all my life/I was a bride married to amazement./ I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.” (Oliver para 9).
Oliver portrays another image about death, precisely in relation to life. She reports death to being alive and creates a romantic perception of life. The bride and the bridegroom generate the idea of a wedding, a communion, a sharing of emotions of being alive. Life is seen as a universal wedding, whereas death is simply emptiness. It’s all over when death comes. The poet sees no continuity after life ends. Death does not bring any perspectives about the wedding concept to continue after the ceasing of life.
Oliver, as Thomas and as Szymborska so far, does not see beyond the ceasing of life. They all focus on illustrating their feelings about the end of life. None is focusing on what death might bring. None of them explores the continuity concept.
John Donne considers the possibility of life after death, seeing death as “one short sleep” (“Death Be Not Proud”). Unlike Thomas who associates death with something awful that puts an end of all the fun activities of life, Donne does not considers death “mighty and dreadful”, and he even mocks it, diminishing its importance, by comparing it to “poppie, or charms”, which can also make people sleep, just as death.
Thomas is recognizing death’s power and he is considering it a threat, against which he is preparing customized strategies. Instead, Szymborska thinks that sometimes death “isn’t strong enough/to swat a fly from the air” (para 6). Nevertheless, she is considering that death’s failed attempts of taking away people generate diseases and anomalies.
Szymborska’s perception about death evolves through her poem: if in the beginning she considers that death has no sympathy, no compassion, as it does not understand if people are not yet ready to stop living, through the end of her poem she sees death not as omnipotent. Her attitude towards death catches life towards the end of the poem, and she explores an illuminating perspective: “There’s no life/that couldn’t be immortal/if only for a moment” (para 11). The poet suggests the immortality of the moment, a paradoxical definition for living life at its fullest.
John Donne expresses the idea of eternal life, sustaining the Christian believe that the ones who believe will live for eternity even after death. Death is just another stage in life, a step people make in reaching the eternal life, according to Donne.
This perspective, of the eternal life after death, was born as a manipulation tool, for attracting people to Christian religion, as it promotes the idea of forever living, for believers, or the ones who embrace the Christian religion. But what remains for the non – believers, or the ones who do not adopt this religion?
There can be understood based on the Christian religion that death is discriminatory and it facilitates the forever living for the believers, while it ceases the existence of the non – believers.
Donne’s perception about death also includes its personification, considering it a weak person, who suffers pain and torments, and in the end who loses a fight with life: “And death shall be no more” (“Death Be Not Proud”). Yes, death fights for killing people, as this is its only purpose, but it is being defeated at its own games when the dead’s spirits come to life and continue to live forever.
Life is about great expectations, about setting targets and determining the steps to reach and conquer the imposed objectives. This gives flavor to life, to living, to being alive. All these are attributes of life. The literature studied so far expressed death as a period, the ending of a sentence. Death “has the final word”, says Szymborska (para 2). But what makes us believe there is actually nothing after death? That all the planning for reaching new objectives, for accomplishing new successes and satisfactions, that all the great expectations will cease once the life is ending?
Probably precisely the unknown. Death is not solely the absence of life, but the absence of knowledge, any knowledge about any kind of existence in after life. Of course, speculations are being made about the eternal living after death, or reincarnation. Nonetheless, nobody can assume that there is actually life after death, or that there is not any.
Probably the unknown generates fear and fear creates repulsion, or sometimes even hatred (as it can be observed in Dylan Thomas’ poem). Nonetheless, this is a purely philosophical approach to why we tend to associate death with nothing or with something negative because it stops the good, positive and fun things from life to continue happening.
Practically death has an ugly side, because most of the times it does not come alone, but with an entire escort, announcing its arrival. It sends its messengers, in the form of aging, of illness, or the lack of desire for living and then it comes and takes full control of people.
Death has many faces in poetry. It is dreadful, it is imminent, it represents an absence of everything known to humans, the inexistence, it is not strong enough sometimes, or it is simply vulnerable. The studied poems indicate the authors’ perspectives and attitudes about death, based on their experiences with it, or on their believes, social, cultural, or religious influences. There can be many pages written about death, but in the end everybody perceives it differently, in accordance with their personality, and their set of values.
Works Cited
Donne, John. Death Be Not Proud. Accessed on 20 April, 2012, retrieved from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/death-be-not-proud/. 2001. Web
Oliver, Mary. When Death Comes. Boston, Beacon Press. 1992. Print.
Szymbordka, Wislawa. On Death, without Exaggeration. The People on the Bridge. Accessed on 20 April. 2010, retrieved from http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1996/poems-2-e.html. 1986. Web.
Thomas, Dylan. Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night. New Directions Publishing Corporation. 1957. Accessed on 20 April, 2012, retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175907. Web.
