Compare and contrast the two poems - Essay Example

Udiah’s work appeared to be more effective in delivering its message and emotion, for the poem’s sentence structures were written with simplicity. Similarities The subject that the two poems similarly discussed was ‘death.’ Both masterpieces conveyed the underlying message that death is part of the lives of mortal beings or it is part of the cycle of life. For instance, there was a line in the poem “Angel of Death” which said “fears of my slavery” (Udiah Line 22). This line means that individuals are slaves of death, and that human being’s life on earth is finite.

Likewise, the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” also communicated the same message through the line, “old age should burn and rage at close of day” (Thomas Line 2). This implies that the poet acknowledged that death is part of life. Since death was the subject matter discussed, both poems communicated the emotions such as struggle, sadness, and mourning. These were made more vivid through the poets’ utilization of metaphors. For instance, night and darkness were used as symbols for death.

With this, the vision that the readers may create while reading both poems is darkness, which connotes sadness and loneliness due to desolation. In terms of the structures of the poem and the techniques that the poets used, similarities were also found. Both poems were structured in a formal manner, employing in uniform syllable counts. “Angel of Death” is composed of four stanzas with six lines in each. The first four lines in each stanza uniformly have six syllables, while the last two lines have eight syllables.

The poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is composed of six stanzas with three lines in each, except for the last stanza which has four lines. Uniformly, each line has ten syllables. Udiah and Dylan Thomas used repeated lines to give drama and heighten the intensity of the message they want to convey. For instance, the first poem repeatedly mentioned the line “the angel of death at his kill” (Udiah Lines 6, 12, 18, 24), while the other poem repeatedly uttered “rage, rage against the dying light” (Thomas Lines 3, 9, 15, 19) and “do not go gentle into that good night” (Thomas Lines 1, 6, 12, 18).

In addition, both poets used the irony technique to explicitly express the artistic nature of poems. For example, the phrase ‘angel of death’ demonstrates irony, considering that angels are deemed good, yet they can also be deadly. The line “blind eyes could blaze like meteors” (Udiah Line 14) in the other poem, likewise shows irony, for it is impossible for a blind eyes to see dazzling light. On a personal point of view, the use of the formal poem structures, i.e. uniform syllable counts and rhyme schemes, have provided the readers with easy and enjoyable read.

As a result, the readers may experience easy grasp of the subtle message of such masterpieces, and feel the emotion that those poems aspire to convey. Furthermore, the techniques that Udiah and Dylan Thomas used like the metaphor, repetitive lines, and irony have also added beauty to the poems. With those, the effectiveness of message transmission and message reception were elevated. Perhaps, such techniques made both poets effective on how they liked in conveying the