Dylan Thomas's 'A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London' subverts elegiac expectations through what rhetorical stance?

Correct answer: By asserting the child's death is too sacred to be cheapened by conventional poetic laments

Dylan Thomas subverts the traditional expectations of the elegy by declaring that he will not shed tears or manufacture standard sentimental comfort for a young victim of the Blitz. He argues that any formal elegiac rhetoric would insult the majestic finality of the child's return to the earth. By refusing to write a conventional mourning poem, he creates an intensely powerful, unconventional elegy.