Israel Vaca
Eng 1100
Prof. Snow
02/16/05
Death
Death is an aspect of life that everyone becomes acquainted with
sooner or later. We have been brought into a new era of war and unrest all over the world
that has opened our eyes more then anything to this concept of death. In this day you cant
go without missing it , turn on the T.V and you hear about the bomb the killed Sixteen in
Iraq or the top story of the New York times: “suicide bomb kills three in Palestine.”
Having lost my grandmother who had taken care of me while my parents were at work
every single day since I was born, I find myself more familiar with death than I could
ever want to be. Poetry is something that is very difficult for me to follow, but when it
deals with concept that I am familiar with, I am able to associate with the soul of the
writer. Two poems that deal with the concept of death that I actually enjoyed reading and
will compare to each other are "Death be not proud" by John Donne and "Do Not Go
Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas.
Firstly, in "Death be not proud," Donne tells Death that it’s
nothing special, that Death is a low being that deals with the pitiful aspects of life: war,
disease, and murder. Donne says that Death is nothing more than an aspect of life, just an
event of the moment, "one short sleep past, we wake eternally." Donne goes on to
explain that we all will go through this door while on the way to another existence.
