The poem, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night", by Dylan Thomas, is a poem that is a called villanelle; which is a highly structured poem consisting of 19 lines of 5 tercets and a concluding quat6rain. Thomas uses this structure to shed an emotional feel to the reader that one should never give into death; that one should be strong to the end fighting and holding on to one's life. Thomas uses the first line of stanzas 2-5 to show his father using words such as: "wise men", "good men", "wild men", "grave men" and finally addressing his dad, "my father" that no matter how he lived his life he should embrace the good with the bad and never give up. This tells the reader that the speaker who is Thomas, that this was a personal experience of his father dying and how much he meant to him. It's interesting how the author connects his key words from the first line to the second line starting in stanza two through stanza five. Here are some good examples, wise men-words had forked (2.4-5), good men-frail deeds (3.7-8), wild men-learn to late (4.10-11), grave men-blind eyes (5.13-14), and my father-curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears (6.16-17). The second line of each tercet has use of metaphors to accentuate the actions of what the different men "could have" or "might have" done to save themselves from the fight of dying. But in this case, I believe that the speaker uses those words to express to the reader that death is inevitable and one should never take life for granted.
The two rhyming sounds are the very last words in the first and third lines of the tercet. The author uses night, light, right, bright, flight, sight and height for the rhyming sound words. The main two rhyme words are "night" and "light" in which "night" is significant for "death" and "light is significant for "life". The two refrains are, "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light", which alternate in the third line of tercets two through five to give some sense of urgency that living and dying are a part of the human life, that there is very little that divide the two.
Then last four lines are called the quatrain. In the quatrain Thomas throws in a line that isn’t in the poem until line 17 which reads, “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.” I feel that this line sounds negative but yet also positive. He puts “curse”before “bless” insinuating that no matter what if his father curses him or blesses him, he [his father] is going to die anyhow so put off any feelings of anguish or resentment and move forward onto the next life.
You pointed out a lot of good details to show the form of the poem. I like how you said that the wise, good, wild, and grave man are his father. I never really made that connection. I just thought of each as random people. You wrote that the two rhymes are “night” and “light” however, “night” and “light” are the same rhyme. The two rhymes throughout the poem are “night” and “day”, to discuss life and death. I thought the form of this poem was a good choice to really get his point across.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina, I really like your post about Thoma's poem. Your analisis about the villanelle's structure is good. writing about that poem is focus in its meaning, and I did not realize the structure's importance with the meaning. You make me relate each verse and rhyme (there are 2) with Thomas message about death and life. You out line the rhyme scheme light/night; these methafores are about life and death, and it is very interesting see how these contrasting methafores are used to expose the human beings dilemma about their fears (death), and thier lack of interest for life. I believe this poem is Thomas' thesis about death and life which main character is his father and his lack of interest for living. Good Post Tina.
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