DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOODNIGHTDYLAN THOMAS

DYLAN THOMAS

BACKGROUND Do you know someone named "Dylan"? Chances are he was

probably named (indirectly) after Dylan Thomas! Thomas's father named him after a Celtic sea god, and when the younger Thomas became famous, "Dylan" became a popular name in Britain and the U.S.

When Dylan Thomas was four years old, he was already able to recite poetry by Shakespeare.

Dylan Thomas was a colorful character; his boorish, drunken behavior and self-destructive ways were legendary. For example, some sources claim that, while driving drunk on his way to meet Charlie Chaplin, he crashed his car into Chaplin's tennis court. It's hard to sort out fact from fiction, but if he were alive today, he'd be tabloid material right up there with Tom Cruise, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears.

A good reason you should always "enter to win": Dylan Thomas became famous after winning a poetry contest in a newspaper in 1933.

SUMMARY

The speaker asserts that old men at the end of their lives should resist death as strongly as they can. In fact, they should only leave this world kicking and screaming, furious that they have to die at all. At the end of the poem, we discover that the speaker has a personal stake in this issue: his own father is dying.

THEMEDying should not be accepted

passively . The loss of life should be regretted and fought against until the bitter end.

MOODDefiant –To combat or challenge

death. Not to go willingly into death but the fight it with the last breath.

Fiery – spirited. Again to show that one must not die willingly but to fight death.

STRUCTURE Villanelle: Popularised mainly in

France in the 16th century. It usually expresses pastoral, idyllic sentiments.

Lines: 19Number of stanzas: 6Lines in each stanza: Three

lines (tercet) in the first 5 stanzas; four lines (quatrain) in the last stanza

Refrains: The first and third lines of the stanza one must be repeated in the other stanzas◦Line 1 on the first stanza repeated

in: Stanza 2,4,6

◦Line 3 of the first stanza repeated in:Stanza 3,5,6

RhymeEnd Rhyme

◦aba in the first 5 stanza◦abaa in the last stanza

Stanza 1

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.

Metaphor : DEATH, sunset his approaching demise. Oxymoron: ‘good death’ if one view death as not goodPun: 1. death 2. goodbye

Assonance

To talk furiously or wildly or deliriously

A fit of violent anger

The speaker addresses an unknown listener, telling him

not to "go gentle into that good night."

Point of View: Thomas begins the poem with second-person point of view, telling his father and other readers to "fight till the last gasp," as Shakespeare said. 

go gentle: Go becomes a copulative verb, permitting the use of the adjective gentle rather than the adverb gently.

close of day: end of life

light: will to live; spirit, soul, mind; hope

Stanza 2

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.

Metaphor: Lightning is compared to attention, notice--that is, their words had received no attention. , they may not have achieved everything they were capable of yet.

Alliteration

Metaphor: night/dark compared to death.

Point of View: Thomas shifts to third-person point of view. Here he is making a declarative statement when he says wise men "do not go gentle."

right: inevitable, unavoidable; natural

forked no lightning: failed to command attention; failed to express a startling or revolutionary concept. In meteorology, "forked lightning" describes a lightning strike that divides into two or more branches resembling the roots of a plant--or, metaphorically, a fork.

they do: enjambment

Stanza 3

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.

are about to crash against the shore, or die

Man is like a wave, death is like the breaking of the wave on the shore, the sea is like life, and the dancing waters in the ocean are like beautiful actions.

Metaphor: compared to death

Personification: how great their actions could've been if they'd been allowed to live longer.

Point of View: Thomas continues third-person point of view. 

Parallel Ideas: Good men has the force of wise men in the previous stanza. The message expressed in both stanzas is similar: Men facing death realize they could have done more and thus fight against the dying of the light. 

crying: weeping or shouting 

bright their: another instance of enjambment

Stanza 4

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Alliteration: sang sun; learn late

Metaphor: Implied comparison of achievement to catching the fire of the

sun and to singing

the world they celebrated was slowly dissolving around them as

they age and die.

Point of View: Thomas continues third-person point of view. 

Parallel Ideas: Wild men has the force of good men in Stanza 3 and wise men in Stanza 2. The message is the same as in Stanzas 2 and 3. 

Wild . . . flight: These men had their moment in the sun, so to speak. But they lived most of their lives in shadows, grieving over daily travails. Word “flight” implies the short lifespan of people living in this world.

they grieved it: dismissed it; sent it. They did

not seize the moment and capture what it offered them.

Stanza 5

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

Oxymoron

Simile

Alliteration: See sight, blinding blind blazeAssonance: Blaze gay rage

Light-hearted, sportive, mirthful, showy and brilliant

Point of View: Thomas continues third-person point of view. 

Parallel Ideas: Grave men has the force of wild men in Stanza 4, good men in Stanza 3 and wise men in Stanza 2. The message is the same as in Stanzas 2 and 3. 

Grave men: Serious men. It seems that Thomas veers close to bathos (anti-climax)here, for the words can be read as a prosaic pun. 

blinding sight: an oxymoron to convey the idea that dying men with failing eyes see with illuminating insight

blaze . . . gay: A blind man can see in other ways and even "blaze" with ideas and zest for life

Stanza 6

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. 

Oxymoron

verge of death

curse, bless: In effect, "if you cursed me, you would be blessing me." Cursing his son would show that he still has fire, spirit, the will to fight