The theme of “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is based on morality and transcendentalism. It laments the inevitability and necessity of death, encouraging old people to rise up against their death and fate. The poet’s voice is arguing that old people should not consent to die immediately. He links being alive with passion and deep emotions. Thomas’ “good men” and “wise men” resist dying gently, because they could not achieve what they might have achieved in their lives. Through the examples of different types of men, the poet affirms the importance of being alive. He believes that they should resist dying, if they have not truly lived their lives.
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a poem reflecting Dylan Thomas’s complex attitude toward his father, David John Thomas. The elder Thomas had been a schoolmaster in the grammar school that his son attended and had instilled in the young poet a love for the English of William Shakespeare and the Bible. He had himself written poems in his childhood and seemed to desire to create in his son the poet he had never succeeded in becoming. He had also become the model for the oracular reading voice that Thomas adopted for his own poetry.
That the younger Thomas held his father in high esteem appears clearly in the poem. The adjectives that the poet uses to characterize him are “wise,” “good,” “wild,” and “grave.” The first two are clearly laudatory, although in each case the virtue is mixed with disappointment that it had no wider effect on society. The wildness, however, adds a dimension unseen in the first two qualities: Its influence has somehow interfered with the poetic inspiration that it clearly comprehends. “Wild men” discover they “grieved” the “sun in flight.” This statement is ambiguous; it could mean that the father interfered with the flights of genius in himself or in others, including Dylan. It could also refer to the poet himself, whose wildness led to dissipation responsible for his own manifold problems—by psychological transfer, he may be applying this to his father.
His father’s gravity, however, is hardly characteristic of the son. Although the term suggests dignity worthy of respect, it connotes here a somberness that has been blind to human joy, something the poet had clearly experienced, as many of his poems indicate.
In the final stanza, the poet wants to wring from his father on his “sad height” a curse-blessing, somewhat in the mode of the biblical Jacob as he stole his birthright from Esau. In this case, the curse is the suffering rage the father must experience as he glimpses the glory of what might have been had he fulfilled his own promise; to some degree, he has transferred the rage to his son in the form of insecurity about his own achievement. The blessing is the genius he provided to his son—genius which he had himself fulfilled only vicariously—and supported with his strong sense of language and its power.
LITERARY TECHNIQUES
Alliteration:go, good (first stanza); though, their (second stanza); deeds, danced (third stanza) sang, sun (fourth stanza); learn, late (fourth stanza); see, sight (fifth stanza); blinding, blind, blaze (fifth stanza). Note: Go and gentle do not alliterate; they have different consonant sounds.
Assonance:age, rave, day (first stanza); blaze, gay, rage (fifth stanza)
Metaphor:good night compared to death (first stanza)
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight (fourth stanza). Implied comparison of achievement to catching the fire of the sun and to singing triumphantly.
Two Metaphors: words had forked no lightning (second stanza). (1) Words are compared to the cause of forked lightning. (2) Lightning is compared to attention, notice—that is, the words had received no attention.
Metaphor/Personification/Metonymy: old age . . . burn . . . rave. (Old age represents and is compared to a person)
Metaphor/Personification: frail deeds might have danced
Oxymoron: good night (first stanza). Good death is oxymoronic if one does not view death as good. The words blinding sight (fifth stanza) is also an example. Another isfierce tears (sixth stanza)
Simile: blind eyes could blaze like meteors (fifth stanza)
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Meter
Except for the second one of Stanza 5, each line in the poem has ten syllables (five feet). The first syllable in a line is unstressed, the second is stressed, the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on. Thus, the poem is in iambic pentameter.
Type of Work, Stucture, and Rhyme Scheme
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a villanelle, a form of poetry popularized mainly in France in the sixteenth century. It usually expressed pastoral, idyllic sentiments in imitation of the Italian villanella, a type of song for singers and dancers that centered on rural, peasant themes. When French writers such as Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560) and PhilipeDesportes (1546-1606) began writing villanelles, these poems did not have a fixed format. However, when Jean Passerat (1534-1602) wrote a villanelle whose format caught the fancy of critics, that format became the standard for all future villanelles. The format is as following: the number of stanzas are Six.
Lines in Each Stanza: Three in each of the first five stanzas, four in the last. A three-line stanza is called a tercet; a four-line stanza, a quatrain.
Refrains: two lines, the first and third of the first stanza, must be repeated in the other stanzas. Here is the pattern: Line 1 of the first stanza is repeated as line 3 of the second stanza, as line 3 of the fourth stanza, and as line 3 of the sixth stanza. Line 3 of the first stanza is repeated as line 3 of the third stanza, line 3 of the fifth stanza, and line 4 of the sixth stanza.
End Rhyme: aba in the first five stanzas; abaa in the last stanza.
Imagery
Experience comes to us through the senses. There are many different categories of sense experience. Imagery can be represented through language of sense experience. Generally, there are mainly seven kinds of imageries: visual imagery, auditory imagery, olfactory imagery, gustatory imagery, tactile imagery, organic imagery and kinesthetic imagery. Among them, visual imagery occurs most frequently in poetry. The imagery occurs mostly in the poem “Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is visual imagery.
In the second tercet, the speaker tells that “wise men at their end know dark is right, /Because their words had forked no lightening”. Forked lightening is a kind of lightening that is in the line of light that divides into several smaller lines near the bottom. In this stanza, the speaker points out that wise men’s attitude towards death: they know death is inevitable and they are wise enough to continue to leave a mark in their life by “their words” before they could influence this world. The words of the wise men haven’t splitting the lightening reveals their failure to make some influence on the world.
In the third tercet, “Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright/Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay” also express their rage against death. The image “last wave by” vividly describes the last wave is about to crash the shore or die. The bay is green for it is brimmed with life, plants, and seaweeds. Last wave can be interpreted as this: the recent generation is like the wave about to crash onto the shore. When these good men are about to leave this world, they rage against death by “crying” their deeds may have danced brightly.
Metaphor and Simile
The first line of the first tercet, the poet uses night as a metaphor for death. Then “close of day” and “dying of the light”, the synonymous phrases of night are repeated in the next two lines of the first tercet. Night is the end of one’s life and it represents death, while day is the lifespan of one’s life and it represents life. In the second tercet, the metaphor of night as death continues, but this time the poet uses dark which is closely related to night as a metaphor for death. In the third tercet, “the sun in flight” is a part of the extended metaphor in which day is a circle of life and the flying of sun represents the bright and beautiful part of life. “The sun in flight” also represents life is short and transient.
In the fifth tercet, the poet uses a simile in the second line of this tercet: “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay”. When those grave men are near death, though they could not see clearly, they still try their best to see the world. The poet compares blind eyes of grave men to meteors rather than extinguishing candles. This comparison is ill-matched, and the poet uses this ill-matched comparison on purpose to represent grave men’s attitude towards death: though they know they will die, they still see with twinkle in their eyes and see as much as they can before death.
Symbol
A symbol is a kind of image, for it exceeds the image in the richness of its connotations. Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish image and symbol, but generally an image means only what it is and a symbol means what it is and something more, too. In the poem “Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, the poet employs many symbols.
“Good night” in the first line of the first tercet symbolizes death or afterlife. At first readers may get puzzled when they read the apostrophe line “Do not go gentle into that good night”, readers are confused that who the addressee is and why the speaker asks him to do that. The poet reveals the addressee is “my father” in the last tercet. It can be easily understood that the speaker’s father is dying and he wants to urge his father to fight against death. “Close of day” symbolizes end of life and “light” in the “dying of light” symbolizes life, spirit or soul.
“The sad height” in the last tercet symbolizes the closeness of death. After listing many different groups of people on the verge of death who fight against death rather than just accept their death obediently, the poet finally mentions his father who is standing at the metaphorical mountain which is the edge of the mortal world.
Rhyme and Meter
“Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is written in a villanelle form. Villanelles were traditional poetic form of French. They became popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s in English-language poetry. A villanelle is divided into nineteen lines which comprises five tercets and a quatrain. Usually, a villanelle is written in iambic pentameter and so is “Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night”.
The rhyme scheme of this poem is ABA ABAABAABAABA ABAA. There are only two rhymes and there are two refrains. The refrains, the first line and the third line, are repeated four times in the poem: first line is repeated in the last line of the second and forth tercet and the last-to-second line of the sixth tercet, and the third line are repeated in the third line of the third and fifth tercet and the last line in the sixth tercet.
The use of repetition of the two refrains “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” is one effective device. The two refrains work musical miracles in the poem and keep emphasizing and deepening the theme of the poem. The first and third lines of the opening tercet alternate as a refrain in the four following tercets and the last two lines of the concluding quatrain. Such a demanding restriction requires poetic ingenuity to maintain a meaningful expression. Here the form provides the poet with a suitable framework for his four characteristic types-wise, good, wild, and grave men-and enables him to equate these types with his father’s character. This repetition expresses one of the major themes: one should not accept death without resistance.
Sound and Meaning
Poetry arranges words into patterns of sounds like music. The music of poetry may not be able to mean very much on its own, but it can certainly help make the poem’s meaning.
Alliteration and Consonance
Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant cluster in stressed syllables.
In the first line “Do not go gentle into that good night”, the alliteration here is used to call attention to the words go and good which carry the alliteration, thus giving great emphasis to these words. Night symbolizes death here. Night has a negative connotation, and the poet adds an adjective good to balance this kind of negative effect.
In the fifth tercet “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/ Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay”, the repeated /b/ sound echoes in the sense or meaning conveyed by the two lines. The connection among these three words forms a contrast: though grave men are losing their faculty of sight, they still use what they have to rage against death. The employment of alliteration here emphasizes the theme of the poem: do not accept death tamely.
Consonance is the repetition of the final consonant cluster in stressed syllables.
In the concluding quatrain “Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray”, the repetition of /s/ sound constituted consonance which effectively unites the key words of this line and reinforces the mood of the speaker to urge his father to fight against death.
Euphonies and Cacophonies
The poet can reinforce meaning through sound by choose and group sounds into smooth and pleasant sounding (euphonious) or rough and harsh sounding (cacophonous). When the sounds of words work together in harmony, they create euphony which pleases both mind and ear. When the sounds of words do not work together, they create a harsh, discordant effect called cacophony.
There is a large amount of cacophonous consonant /r/ in this poem.
Rage, rage against…
Though wise men know at their end know dark is right.
Because their words had forked no lightening…
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Many monosyllabic words are ended with plosives like /d/, /t/ and /k/. The plosives are harsher and sharper in their effect.
E.g. That, night, old, light, end, dark, right, bright, wild, blind, sad, height.
All these kinds of cacophonous sounds cause a severe feeling. One of the most obvious sound features of this poem is that the poet uses a great amount of “long” vowels or diphongs like /ai/ and /ei/.
E.g. /ai/ night, dying, light, lightening, crying, wild, blinding, blind, eyes, like /ei/ day, age, rave, wave, frail, wage, against, late, grave, blaze.
These “long” vowels appear frequently in this poem. Through these vowels readers could feel that the speaker’s voice cracked with grief. Besides, the end rhymes of this poem are /ait/ and /ei/. These two rhymes link the key word of this poem “night” and “day”, and “light” and “night”. They also echo the life and death theme of this poem. The sound repetition responds to the theme of the poem, and the sound and meaning of “rave”, “rage” and “against” shows the rebellious attitude toward death.
In the last tercert, the sibilance in the line: “Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray” feels softer and gentler. The speaker is pleading his father not to be surrendered to death and fight against death.
GENERAL EVALUATIONS/REVISION QUESTIONS
- Discuss the major theme of the poem.
- Comment on the poet’s use of simile and metaphor
READING ASSIGNMENT
Read the themes of the poem in Exam Focus and summarise them.
WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT
- The clash of interest that originates from opposing forces in literature is A. climax.
B. denouement.C. conflict.D. aside. - A major character whose flaws combine with external forces that lead to his downfall is a
A. flat character.B. round character.C. romantic hero.D. tragic hero. - Which of the following is not a drama? A. Burlesque B. Resolution C. Pantomime
D. Opera - A literary work in which the characters and events are used as symbols is known as
A. characterization.B. allegory.C. metaphor.D. parallelism. - Characterization in a novel refers to the A. writer’s opinion of the characters. B. way the characters are revealed to the reader. C. characters and the way they behave. D. reader’s opinion of the characters.
THEORY
Write a brief biography on August Wilson.
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