Don't do it!

"Do not go gentle into that good night" is a favorite of mine. I love villanelles, and this one is just about as good as it gets. I love that the speaker is able to use the repeated phrases in multiple ways and with multiple meanings. It gives an almost magical power to the poem. It seems like the speaker is pleading to the person who is dying not to go easily. He wants the person to go out with a bang. I also like that the poem sticks to the pattern and makes it work with the poem. It seems like the concept of a villanelle was made for this poem in particular. This Dylan Thomas fellow is rather brilliant. He really added some magic to this poem.

Death, be not proud

This poem has a pretty nice little message to it. The speaker speaks directly to death (apostrophe!!) and tells it that he isn't scared of him. He is telling the reader not to be afraid of death, and not to let it control people's lives. It is much better to understand that it is inevitable, and just let it happen. I think that it is a pretty good message. If people let death rule their lives, they will forget about life itself. They just need to focus on what they can control and understand that it will happen eventually.
It seems to me that sticking it to death is a pretty common message in poetry. I feel like I have blogged about that message before. I guess if a poet is going to write about death, they might as well not be sad when they do.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (that's twenty of em).

"Edward" just might be one of the most annoying things that I have ever read. Despite that, it does have some good pattern to it. Most of the lines in the poem are repeated a few times. This creates a flow to the poem that makes it feel much more like a conversation. It also uses the word "O" twenty times. I'm not quite sure why the speaker does this, but it seems to add some sort of emphasis. I picture a person with their finger pointing at a person and scolding them. The mother and Edward seem to be in some crazy discussion where each person knows the answers to the other question, yet they ask anyway. That is why the mother never reacts to Edward's answers. She already knows what he did. She is actually the one who told him to kill his father.

Poor Lonely Hearts...

"Lonely Hearts" has a very sarcastic tone to it. It isn't really making fun of people, but more pointing out how ridiculous the people sounds. The fact that people specify the body shapes of the people they want, but not anything about personalities show the subtle shot at society. The speaker seems to feel that the people don't really want love when they send out these ads. The sarcastic suggestions that the people are looking for love imply that sex is actually the craving of those writing the ads. I agree with the speaker. People focus way too much on the physical aspect of relationships, and too little on the actual substance of it.
On another note, I think that putting an ad in the newspaper is a ridiculous idea. If a person is desperate enough to look in the newspaper for love, then they probably aren't the best person to have a relationship with. No offense to those who use them, but I just think they are rather crazy. I doubt they ever work. Please find a new way of finding dates. That is all.