"Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,"(5) Those are the sentiments expressed in the poem "Aubade," by Philip Larkin, as well as by, undoubtedly, a good portion of the population.  Death is something that is in the minds of people from the moment they become aware that their  life will eventually end, until the moment that it does, in fact, end. However, how people view their coming expiration is different, depending on who they are, what religion they practice, how they  feel that their life has progressed so far, as well as many other factors. Two particular poets writing two different poems, expressed their views on death in contrasting ways. Those poems were  "Aubade," and "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," and the poets were Philip Larkin and Dylan Thomas, respectively.

In "Aubade," by Philip Larkin, the speaker is a worker who is waking up at four in the morning and, before he leaves for work, he lies in bed and reflects on death. In the first stanza, the speaker is gazing into the darkness and thinking about his own death: "Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. / In time the curtain-edges will grow light. / Till then I see what's really always there: / Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,"(2-5) In the rest of the stanza, he becomes somewhat obsessed with his death, even saying that thinking about it has made all other thoughts, except for death, impossible for him. He becomes frozen with the thoughts that he
claims "hold and horrify."(10) him. In his anxiety, he seems unable to stop thinking about how horrible death is and how afraid of dying he is. These thoughts, in fact, lead to the rest of the poem.

The next two stanzas consist of him talking about, not his own death alone, but death in general and the fear that he believes most people have of it. He writes that it is a misconception that people fear death because of remorse for "[the] good not done, the love not given, time / Torn off unused"(12-13). His main argument is that the fear of death stems from:

...the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.(16-20)

In other words, his main fear of death is that he will literally cease to exist. This thought carries over into the next stanza, in which he also criticizes those who attempt to lessen the fear of death through religion: "No trick dispels. Religion used to try, / That vast moth-eaten musical brocade / Created to pretend we never die,"(22-24) or through rational thought: "And specious stuff that says No rational being / Can fear a thing it will not feel,"(25-26) by reminding "That
this is what we fear--no sight, no sound, / No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, / Nothing to love or link with, / The anaesthetic from which none come round."(27-30) He makes his argument on the basis that death is something to be feared and dreaded. He resents those who attempt to calm the people down, so the last question that is left to answer is the one asking what he plans on doing in the meantime until his death.

The final two stanzas answer this question, and give the last hint of information about this person's outlook on his demise. After making his case against death, he basically surrenders to it, stating, "Most things may never happen: this one will,"(34) and "Being brave / Lets no one off the grave. / Death is no different whined at than withstood."(38-40). The speaker is assuming a passive, but very fearful, role in his coming death and he feels that it's the only smart thing to do. After all, he says, there's no point in being brave, if you're going to die anyway. In the final stanza, the sun is finally coming up, and so the speaker gets ready to go to work, but gives the final comment that, while the workday starts and people mill about doing their menial jobs, death is still going to come and kill everybody: "It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know, / Have always known, know that we can't escape, / Yet can't accept."(42-44) and, he says, in the meantime, "Work has to be done."(49)

Dylan Thomas, on the other paw, wrote a poem called "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," which is a direct contrast from Larkin's poem. Both poems are about death, but Thomas's speaker takes a much more aggressive stance against the inevitable. The first stanza immediately starts this notion of fighting against the inevitable by stating, "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."(1-3)  These first three lines set the stage of the poem as one which encourages defiance in the face of  death. It says to never give up or surrender to fate. Unlike Larkin's speaker, who states that there's no point in showing courage in the face of death, Thomas's speaker states, "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."(4-6) which is to say that, even though these men knew that death was
coming, they still fought against it.

The next three stanzas have the speaker discussing different groups of people who were fighting, or should be fighting, against the inevitable, sometimes death and sometimes not. "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."(7-9) Dylan Thomas is saying that these people might have done so well in life, and so they should fight against dying in order to live their dreams. Larkin's speaker had stated, in the final stanza of his poem, that death was inevitable, but Thomas's speaker is giving the impression that this might not be the case. "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." is another example of Thomas's speaker talking about how these people,  blind but suddenly able to see, should fight against death and, maybe, go out into the world.

In the final stanza of Thomas's poem, we finally see a focus to these words of  encouragement and defiance against the inevitable. Thomas's speaker states, "And you, my father, there on the sad height, / Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray, / Do not go gentle  into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light." So, it becomes obvious that  Thomas's speaker, who is perhaps Thomas himself, is speaking to his father, who is dying. He uses examples of how others should fight, just as he should, against death and the end of days. It becomes a poem of purpose, whereas Larkin's poem is a poem of surrender. Where Thomas
says "Rage, rage against the dying of the light"(3), Larkin says "Death is no different whined at  than withstood."(40) and therein lies the difference between the two speakers.

And so, given the evidence, the difference between Larkin's poem and Thomas's poem becomes clear. Both deal with death, and both are focussed on the attitudes surrounding death, but Thomas uses short, forceful stanza's to drive home to image of fighting, never giving up and  raging against death, and Larkin uses long, almost tedious and quite depressing words, which give a more complacent attitude toward death and how we should fear death, but accept that there's nothing that we can do about it. Some would say, although this is not an argumentative essay, that Larkin's attitude is more realistic, whereas Thomas's attitude is more inspiring, but both are very  nice poems and both prove the point that death is coming. It's just a matter of how it's accepted.

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Works Cited

Larkin, Philip. "Aubade." Poetry - A Longman Pocket Anthology Ed. R.S. Gwynn
New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 1997. 237-38
 

Thomas, Dylan. "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." Poetry - A Longman Pocket Anthology Ed. R.SS. Gwynn
New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 1997. 221