Nelson Mandela once said, “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears”
The idea of hope being a gift that helps us move forward in difficult moments is explored by Emily Dickinson in the extended metaphor poem entitled “Hope” is the thing with feathers” and by Dylan Thomas in the villanelle poem entitled “Do not go gentle into that good night”.
While Dickinson uses assonance and metaphors in “Hope” is the thing with feathers” to express that hope gives us the power to move forward, and in return doesn’t ask anything from us in return, Thomas uses alliteration and metaphors in “Do not go gentle into that good night” to highlight the fact that you should stay persistent to get through tough times through the use of these poetic devices.
In “Hope” is the thing with feathers”, Emily Dickinson uses assonance to convey the theme that hope gives us the power to move forward, and in return doesn’t ask anything from us back. In this poem, the author Emily Dickinson states that hope is practically a gift, because it never asks for anything in return for the help that it provides in many people’s lives. Dickinson exemplifies hope as being a gift by how she says “Yet – never – in Extremity, It asked a crumb – of me.” and that it is there to stay, because it “perches in the soul” (Dickinson 3). Since gifts are given to someone without the need of being repaid in return for the gift.
The tone that is being created with the use of the poetic device, assonance, is persistence, because throughout the poem it keeps implying that hope stays in hard times and helps you get through them without needing for anything in return. It shows that hope is something that stays loyal, and is always there, even in the toughest situations to help you regain the confidence to continue.
So when you are facing tough times during your life, and you want to give up, hope will be there giving you the strength to keep going because in the end, if you give up fighting and hide, you could regret it when looking back at what you were able to do in your lifetime, and wish that you were able to continue the fight.
Additionally, in the following poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night” it talks about how you should appreciate what time you have and live it to the fullest, because even in hard times, having that hope that things will get better, helps you get through life‘s problems and allowing you to take decisions that can change your life for the better. In “Do not go gentle into that good night”
Dylan Thomas uses alliteration and metaphors to convey the theme that you should stay persistent to get through tough times. In this poem, the author, Dylan Thomas, talks about the death of his father and how he should have kept fighting to stay alive. With this, Thomas emphasizes that fighting against death is a way of showing you the importance of living your life to the fullest in the end.
Thomas expressed this by saying, “Do not go gentle into that good night” talking about the persistence to keep living, and the quote “And learn, too late” (Thomas 4) which means that once you are at the end of your life, you’ll remember all the things that you did and either regret what you did, or wish that you did more. Which connects to the other topic of hope, by letting you know that life goes on and what you do with the time that you have left is important, and by keeping hope, you can get through the tough parts of life and move on to the better ones.
The poetic devices that are used in this poem are alliteration, and the use of metaphors. These devices are used in various ways, for example when Thomas says “Do not go gentle into that good night” (Thomas 4) it is an example of both a metaphor and alliteration because the usage of the letter “g” in the quote is an example of alliteration, and when Thomas talks about “that good night” it is a metaphor for death. The author’s purpose in the device usage of alliteration and metaphors helps the reader understand the concept of death easier and allows the reader to understand the importance of living your life to the fullest before it is too late.
The messages conveyed through both of the poems are important to realize in your everyday life in how sometimes, problems that we face in life stop us from moving forward because we don’t believe in ourselves, but with hope and confidence, you can get through those tough times and continue enjoying your life so that you don’t regret what you did or didn’t do in the end.
While Dickinson makes use of assonance and metaphors in “Hope” is the thing with feathers” to specify that hope offers us the strength to keep on persevering, and in the end, doesn’t ask something from us in return, Thomas makes use of alliteration and metaphors in “Do not go gentle into that good night” to focus upon the fact which you must be determined to get through hard times through the usage of those poetic devices.
Both of these poems have had a great impact on many lives, and they can differ from person to person, but the main legacy that these poems leave behind, is as simple as you only live once, and you should live your life to the absolute fullest before it’s too late to hope for another chance.
This brings us to the fact that The message explored in these poems is important because many people seem to give up when times get harder, thinking that they don’t have the strength to get through it, but hope is always there, whatever it may be, it is there to help you have a reason to move forward no matter how difficult the situation seems.
The messages that are conveyed through these poems are relevant to today’s world, especially right now, because many people are going through hard times and don’t know what to do, but these poems hit deep and give you that extra boost of confidence you need to keep on fighting, and helps remind you to think of what could happen if you didn’t follow your dreams when the going got tough.
