Summary and Analysis of Do Not Go

Gentle Into The Night by Dylan Thomas

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Night was written by Dylan Thomas in 1945, when his
father D. J Thomas was seriously ill. The poem was published in his collection, In
Country Sleep, after his fathers death. The poem is a protest against the idea of
accepting death quietly. It discusses the various ways to approach death in old age and
advocates struggling against death until the last breath.
SUMMARY:
Stanza 1:
The first stanza begins the poet requesting his father not to be soft on death. He asks
his father not to accept death quietly but to fight against it with great force and passion.
The word good night in the first line refer to a good death and the poet encourages his
father to resist death in a gentle way. The use of the word rage in line shows the poet
exhorting his father to imply a forceful resistance to death.
Stanza 2:
The second stanza describes the attitude and feelings of wise men who realize that
death is approaching. These wise men can be identified with philosophers and scholars.
As these wise men know that death is inevitable, they do not accept death passively.
Scholars are known and measured by their words. They are not concerned if their
words fail to affect people. They know they still have a long way to go, their many words
are still left unspoken or unwritten and their goals have not been yet accomplished.
Therefore, they hold on to life till the very end to achieve their goals.
Stanza 3:
In the third stanza, the poet describes how the good men face death. Good here refers
to moralists or men who live an upright life. Dylan Thomas believes that true goodness
is composed of fighting the inevitability of death with all your might and force.
Last wave can be interpreted this way. The recent generation of men is termed as the
last wave. These generation of men are about to die in the similar manner like the
ocean waves crashing against each other.
Crying has two meanings. It can either simply mean speaking out or it can mean in the
literal sense, weeping or mourning.
The bay is green as it is brimming with life, plants, seaweeds and algae.
Stanza 4:
In the fourth stanza, the poet describes the reactions of wild men towards death. These
men are too much in action their whole life and they forget to realize that they are
mortal. They waste their lives in adventures and excitements. They do not give in
because they hold on these adventures to perhaps correct some of their mistakes. The
wild men can be a reference to the poets who captures the beauty of nature and sings
the sun in flight. These men feel they cannot be happy when their total output was an
elegy.
Stanza 5:
The fifth stanza is about the attitude of grave men. The word grave here has two
meaning, seriousness and death. These men realize that even though they are weak
and losing their sight, they can still use their strength to fight against death.
Metaphorically speaking, though their eyes are going blind, they can see with an
overwhelming certainty or blinding sight. The blinding sight here signifies Dylans
father who had lost his sight. They believed that instead of getting snuffed like candles,
they can blaze like meteors.
Therefore, these men know they are going to die and so they see the world with twinkle
in their eyes, wanting to see as much as they can before leaving the world.
Stanza 6:
The final stanza is about the poet addressing his father. The sad height refers to his
closeness to death. The poet asks his father to bless him or curse but to cry with a lot of
passion that is to fight fiercely against death. He pleads him not to give in to death but to
fight against with all your might.
ANALYSIS:
Form and Structure:
Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night is structured in a Villanelle. A villanelle is a fixed form
of fixed verse form of French origin. The word has been derived from the Italian word,
villan meaning peasant. So it is considered to have come from the sixteenth century
peasant songs. The form of the villanelle indicates that it descended from a choral
dance song; it has a refrain and self-improvised lyrics in each stanza.
Sound and Sense:
Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night has iambic pentameter as the kind of meter. The
vocabulary contains seven times as many monosyllables as polysyllables
Symbolism:
The poem, Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night has the following symbolisms-
* Night in the poem symbolizes death
* Burn and rave are frequently associated with the passion of youth; here the poet
wants the elderly to sing passionately.
* Close of day symbolizes approaching death
* blaze like meteors symbolize living life with full intensity.
* Sad height symbolizes closeness to death
* Gentle is used as an adjective and it refers to the personality of the poets father.
Poetical Devices:
Alliteration:
The examples of alliteration are as follows-
*Do not go gentle into that good night
*Rage, rage against the dying of the light
*..blinding sight/ Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay
Simile:
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay is an example of fine simile in the
poem, Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night
Oxymoron:
An oxymoron is a paradox in which two terms of ordinary usage are contraries and
conjoined.
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray is an example of oxymoron in the
poem. The poet is asking his father to bless as well as curse him.
Parallelism:
The poem has the use of parallelism by describing the actions of three different kind of
men, wise men, good men, wild men and grave men. The speaker wants his father
to have the qualities of these men.
Contrasts:
The poet has used a number of contrasts in Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night to
highlight its theme. They are as follows-
*gentle and rage
*night and day
*light and dark
*blind and sight
*grave and grey
*curse and bless