Poems about death Elizabeth Bishop & Dylan Thomas ENGL1001~UNBSJ~31.1.17~Dr. M. Jones http://elizabethbishopns.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/407_eb_house_from_walking_tour.jpg

Today Elizabeth Bishop, “First Death in Nova Scotia” Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Mumbles-Swansea-Bay-Tucks-Real-Photo-Posted-1951-/391687555834?hash=item5b3265cafa:g:KbUAAOSwzaJYBzlF

Elizabeth Bishop 1911–1979 prize-winning American poet lived with grandparents in rural NS for part of childhood BA, Vassar, 1934 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703445904576118273647256388

“First Death in Nova Scotia” First published in Questions of Travel (1965) Based on events from her childhood in Nova Scotia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Village Elizabeth Bishop House (Bulmer House), Great Village, NS: artists’ retreat and Nova Scotia Provincially Recognized Heritage Site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Village

First Death in Nova Scotia In the cold, cold parlor my mother laid out Arthur beneath the chromographs: Edward, Prince of Wales, with Princess Alexandra, and King George with Queen Mary. Below them on the table stood a stuffed loon shot and stuffed by Uncle Arthur, Arthur’s father.

Since Uncle Arthur fired a bullet into him, he hadn’t said a word. He kept his own counsel on his white, frozen lake, the marble-topped table. His breast was deep and white, cold and caressable; his eyes were red glass, much to be desired.

“Come,” said my mother, “Come and say good-bye to your little cousin Arthur.” I was lifted up and given one lily of the valley to put in Arthur’s hand. Arthur’s coffin was a little frosted cake, and the red-eyed loon eyed it from his white, frozen lake.

Arthur was very small. He was all white, like a doll that hadn’t been painted yet. Jack Frost had started to paint him the way he always painted the Maple Leaf (Forever). He had just begun on his hair, a few red strokes, and then Jack Frost had dropped the brush and left him white, forever.

The gracious royal couples were warm in red and ermine; their feet were well wrapped up in the ladies’ ermine trains. They invited Arthur to be the smallest page at court. But how could Arthur go, clutching his tiny lily, with his eyes shut up so tight and the roads deep in snow?

Dylan Thomas 1914–1953 Born in Swansea, Wales A "roistering, drunken and doomed poet” One of the great modernist poets http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/all-this-dylan-thomas-fever-is-telling-us-only-half-the-story-9813760.html

“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” Villanelle Written 1947 Said to be about Thomas’ father First published in Botteghe Oscure in 1951 https://books.bibliopolis.com/main/find/4755999/Botteghe-Oscure-VIII--Between-the-Covers.html?id=Zb8MyIh4

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 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.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on that sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night.

Villanelle: “A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.” –Poetry Foundation <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/villanelle>

Discussion How do the narrative voices compare? How does the form affect our reading of each poem?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas The Boat House, Laugharne, the Thomas family home from 1949 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas