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Both “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne (1572-1631) and “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) use death as their central theme. In “Death Be Not Proud”, John Donne denies the power of death in the beginning lines, and argues that those people that death believes it has killed actually don’t cease to be at all, “For, those, whom you think’st, thou dost overthrow,/Die not, poore death.” What death has brought to them is just a kind of “rest and sleep”, a liberation of their souls from suffering, “Rest of their bones, and soules delivery”. Then the expression “One short sleep past, wee wake eternally” reveals the author’s Christian belief that death means salvation, resurrection and an eternal afterlife instead of the end of one’s life. Donne lived in a period when Britain was experiencing profound economical, political and intellectual changes. At that time, Renaissance, “a period between 14th and mid-17th century”, which means “revival or rebirth”, and marks “the transition from medieval to the modern world” (Carey, 54), was shaking Europe, including England. Under the influence of it, people in England began to attach high importance to the power and value of human beings. Besides, Christian teachings about rebirth and resurrection after one’s death make supernatural powers such as death were not so intimidating as they had been before that time. Under such intellectual and religious influences, Donne wrote one of his best known poems “Death Be Not Proud”. In “And Death Shall Have No Dominion”, the poet expresses his contempt and despise for death. Living at a time when world wars, economic recessions, political turbulences and the loss of cultural values made inner peace of mind impossible, Dyla... ... middle of paper ... ...ation of the theme. For example,“Tyger! Tyger!”, “burning bright”(line 1) ; “distant deeps”(line 5); “began to beat”(line 11). The first syllables of these words all belong to explosives, and these explosives can be considered as the imitation of monotonous and wild sound of the forger’s hammering, which is strong and heavy and give readers a big shock. Furthermore, it will remind readers of such visual images as furnace, raging fire and the powerful tiger. Compared, with this fierce and predatory tiger, the image of the mild and benignant “lamb” appears in the fifth stanza. In“stars thrown down on the spears”(line 17) and “smile his work to see”, fricative［s］is alliterated to bring the readers an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Thus, the author’s somewhat ambivalent state of mind toward revolution is presented through metric patterning of the poem.

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