The Final Adventure

The child crept closer to the strange bed. So many bizarre machines and tubes. Her mother was crying, but her mother's mother was dying. The child doesn't know what to think, it this good or bad? Her mother said it was good, that Grandma had been sick and this will make her suffering end. But if this is so good, why is everyone crying? This is the scene in many children's lives that cause them to begin pondering the importance of death. Some children never stop wondering about it, and as adults write poetry to help explain the complicated emotions associated with death. Two such poems are "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. The two poems use very different tones to form similar arguments, while varying slightly in their use of family roles and views of aging and death.…