Death’s paradoxical nature of being inevitable yet unknown sets fear in the hearts and minds of the living today due to its uncertainty. To help cope with the death, people today incorporate religious beliefs by participating in funerals and cultural burials to grieve in hope that that person’s soul lives on. Dylan Thomas’s poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and John Donne’s poem, “Death Be Not Proud, Though Some Have Called Thee” use death’s unwilling nature of inevitability as their theme while using differing viewpoints of death itself that appeals to the reader’s pathos. Donne’s verbatim attitude of downplaying death serves to inspire the reader to accept death as it comes while Thomas uses the opposite idea that one should fight and combat against death’s inevitability. “Thomas believes that death is something that one should fight against, Donne believes that Death provides nothing more than pleasure for the human soul” (Christy, April 16).

Fearing death is neither strange nor abnormal in every person’s mind today. The fact of the unknown sits heavy on the hearts and brings doubt in the eyes of true believers. Thomas and Donne’s use of whether to fear death or not, although contradictory, appeal to the pathos of the reader knowing that either possibility may be right. Thomas begins “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” in the first line issuing a demand to reader not to ease in and let death take you, “Do not go gentle into that good night” (Thomas line 1). The reader in the first line not only senses death itself through context clues but is told immediately not to succumb to it. While this first line proves the perspective of fearing death, Donne also issues a bold statement to the reader on why one should not fear death “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee” (Donne line 1). While Thomas speaks to death as a state of being, Donne uses apostrophe and talks to death as if it were but an old acquaintances and ridicules death for thinking something of which it is not. Thomas uses repetition by choosing to write a villanelle, specific poetic form, consistently stressing in a defiant manner to the reader in multiple lines not to give in to the beast of death, “Rage, rage against the dying of light” (3,9,15, and 19). The aid of villanelle’s form supports Thomas’s perspective of why one should fear death due to the amount of times in the poem it was stated emphasizing its importance. Thomas purposely uses this line of a demand so that the reader will recognize the magnitude of it and to not succumb to death but to live in the moment and to fight the inevitable. While Thomas used the style of villanelle Donne uses the sonnet form to shape his poem suggesting to the reader that just as a sonnet cannot be changed, neither can one’s life at the meeting of death, so one should not try to change what they have no control over. On the contrary, Donne disputes Thomas’s claim of death being such a monster by relating it to but a mere sleep in which drugs could aid us in, “And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well” (11). Both poets enrich the theme of death in sleep but while Donne sees death as nothing more than sleep, demining it with the use of pleasure given from drugs, Thomas refers to sleep as in end to all end.  Thomas uses the fight against the inevitable to centralize around the fact that the purpose of fighting against death is to realize the importance of being alive while Donne chooses not to fight the inevitable because death is not a punishment for few, but an occurrence everyone must endure.  The relationship between both poets can be thought of in the context of politics, one being far left while the other party is far right. Even though both poets have differing views, each are as equally correct as the other, it just depends on what side of the spectrum the reader is on.

As death’s inevitability occurs throughout both poems it is strongly regarded and supported by each poet underlying their beliefs in death itself. Thomas gives cases of men of whom have not fulfilled their duties on earth while Donne contradicts himself proving to the reader that even strong believers are often the strongest doubters. Thomas uses wise men, good men, wild men, and grave men to show the reader that all types of people are in fact faced with the same obstacle of death. “Though wise at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lighting they Do not go gentle into that good night” (4-6) and “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night” (10-12). Taylor compares these two widely different lifestyles to prove to the reader that everyone whether wise or wild must not give into death. Taylor supports this by the second line in both quotes of alluding to the reader that both types of people, good and bad, have realized at the sight of death that they have not truly lived because they have not made an impact on the world and live with immense regrets. At the end of Taylor’s poem, he addresses his father who is about to die and begs to him to fight death if not for himself but for his son, “Cure, bless, me now with your fierce tears I pray, Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of light.” (17-19). Taylor believes in his heart that death itself is the end of all end and asks his father to do anything other than give up, which opens the realization why Taylor feels as if death is the end of all ends is because he is about to lose his father. “The majority of the poem was addressed towards the general audience– it is only in the last stanza of this piece that he addresses his own father, when we finally understand that Thomas composed this piece mainly for personal reasons” (Christy, April 2014). While Taylor uses his own pathos to relate to death Donne relies on his spiritual and Christian beliefs to convey to the reader not the fear death because your soul will live on. “This conviction is shown by his understanding of death as a necessary stage before reaching the glory of heaven, the promised life with God” (Oliver). Due to Donne being a firm believer in heaven he negates death and sees death as less than a grain of sand on the earth. “Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, kings, and desperate men,” (9-10). Donne states that death on its own cannot kill but is just a slave to fate and chance and must depend on war for men to die because death itself isn’t strong enough to kill. Just as every believer of any religion in the world, nothing is a fact but one must just have faith. Faith although is strong, people often doubt and seem to lose themselves in the fear of the unknown just as Donne has. Donne’s use of the word “some” in line one shows the reader that Donne himself is a part of that “some” even though he states in line fourteen, “And death shall be no more; Death, though shalt die” (14). The thought of afterlife after death serves to support’s Donne in his belief that death is worthless and has a lack of power by the condescending tone he uses towards death directly. Thomas uses his perspective of death’s daunting state of being to convince the reader that because the inevitable is unknown one must fight. Donne on the contrary demines death itself by speaking to it as a person using apostrophe but leaves doubt in the reader’s mind by contradicting himself.

Death itself although being unknown, is inevitable which proves to be one of the most abundant paradoxes in life. The two perspectives each by Thomas and Donne are both right, even though they state the complete opposite. One must fight like hell against the inevitable due to it being unknown like Taylor says but one must also realize in the end there is nothing you can do but let death come and take you and have faith that your soul will not perish but reach eternal life, just as  Donne believes. Taylor speaks of death as something that will destroy you while Donne speaks to death and condescends death as if it is nothing to be worried about. The paradox of the inevitable will never be discovered which is why it will always hold fear in living until the end of time 
