Do not go gentle into that good night
(Dylan Thomas)
 
 
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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.

The Poems of Dylan Thomas,

Published by New Directions.

1952, 1953

http://www.uv.es/fores/PoesiaUK2005/1Thomas,%20Dylan/donotgogentle.html



First of all, I am going to analyse the title “Do not go gentle into that good night”. According to the title, we can suppose who the addressee is. In my opinion, everyone is the addressee. However, after having read the poem, we know that the poet is directly addressing his words to his father. The poem was composed in 1945, when D.J. Thomas was seriously ill (Enotes, go-gentle)


The author is using an imperative form such as an advice, or he tries to persuade the reader. He is trying to tell us something that is “into that good night”. The use of the negative form led us to think that this unknown thing is something wrong.

If we read the poem, we realize that the title is throughout the poem itself. So, I can interpret two different things: the first one is that the author wants to emphasize the metaphor, which he is using to express the death of someone. The second interpretation is that some authors, if they do not know how the poem can be titled, they use the first verse in order to give some title. (Vicente Fores) So, it is possible that Dylan Thomas uses this method as a resort. The same happens with some other poems that Dylan Thomas has written: “In my Craft or Sullen Art” “And Death Shall have no Dominion”


At this point, we should name the structure of the poem. In the last works, we have been working with sonnets, but here, we have a Villanelle. A Villanelle is a traditional poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the late 1800s order to imitate French models (Wikipedia, Villanelle) The poem consists on 19 lines, consisting of 5 tercets and a final quatrain on two rhymes: A-B-A/A-B-A/A-B-A/A-B-A/A-B-A/A-B-A-A. The 1st and the 3rd lines of the first tercet are repeated alternately as a refrain closing the succeeding stanza and joined as the final couplet of the quatrain. (Jonkman Willem, index2)

Another characteristic to take into account in this poem is that, if we hear the poem, it seems a song. The poem has a musical structure and the concept of musicality is given by the repetition. If we look at his background, we find one characteristic which justified this idea. In Wales, it is characteristic to drink a lot to protect themselves of the cold climate. In Welsh culture, alcohol is very important. But the fact is that Welsh people are very sociable and when they are together, they drink and sing. So, the concept of musicality is an extraordinary contribution of Dylan Thomas. He was a bard, the figure in the bar who conceived the songs. He introduced new songs. These songs were poems but the musicality makes it possible to become a song. (Vicente Fores)


The main idea of the poem is ( These songs were poems but thedeath. How an old man can approach death. Throughout the poem, we can see a great use of Biblical metaphors symbolizing death, “good night” “the dying of the Light” “the last wave by”. However, there is an opposition between lightness and darkness, live and death. In that sense, the author is showing his desire of live. He wants that this person, who is in his last breath, does not die, but he knows that everyone and everything has an end. The use of these Biblical metaphors can be interpreted as the ideology of the author. He followed the Christian religion and for this reason, he is justifying the death as something good, although it implies the losts of our beloved ones. However, if we look at his biography, his father was a Bible-reading atheist and his mother a devout chapel-goer (Phillips, Ivan. Dylan Thomas) So, the religious sense that D. Thomas gives to that poem can be interpreted as the influence of his father’s reading. The author tries to tell his father something using the same words that he used to read because something known is more comfortable than something that is unknown. Although, at first sight the poem is addressed to his father, an atheist, this poem is read by many people who follow a religious doctrine. Some of these doctrines believe that, after death, there is another place where our souls will rest. In that sense, no matter whether the person is an atheist or a Catholic person, he tries to send this message to MEN. This message incites men to “rage against the dying of the light”


In my opinion, he was trying to tell his father to fight against the horror of death. The author describes Men as wise, good, wild, grave. He is remembering an image of a man who was strong and independent in life and through this poem, he tries to recreate that image, telling him no matter that he is dying, he has to be strong and he has to think that after death, something new is waiting for him. The father seems to symbolize all the people who are scared by the ending of their lives.

His poetry is also called “guts poetry”: he writes in a very emotional way. The death of a father is a very important moment in every person’s life. So, this topic becomes universal.(Vicente Fores)


The main themes of Dylan Thomas’ poetry are nostalgia, life, death and lost innocence and the Welsh landscape and people became and integral part of his poetry.

When the author says “green bay”, he makes reference to his childhood when he and his family lived in the Uplands suburbs of Swansea. It was a respectable area overlooking Swansea bay and the town. (BBC, Biography)Dylan Thomas is a Welsh poet who wrote his poems in English. In that sense, he renounced his mother tongue, but if we look at his biography, we find that despite of his parents being both speakers of the Welsh language and having strong links to Welsh culture and customs, they brought up their children to speak only English. The reason was that the place where they lived, Uplands, was a largely Anglicised area. (BBC, biography)


We perceive in this poem a melancholic tone, which reflects that sadness is the feeling that invades the author’s heart. Sadness comes with the flash of burning life soon blown out with nothing more than a sigh. Imagery, sound, metrics, and tone, are used by Thomas to create the repetitive theme of living and fury, especially through the most forceful two lines, "Do not go gentle into that good night," and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." (Jonkman Willem, index2)



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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

-Villanelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle 20.04.06

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/dylanthomas/biography/pages/early.shtml

http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5471 20.04.06

http://www.enotes.com/go-gentle 19.04.06

Profesor Vicente Forés 25.04.06