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.

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.