Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Analysis

Critical Analysis A poem is a creative form of writing.It communicates emotional experiences in patterned language. A poem is an arrangement of words containing meaning and musicality. Most poems take the form of a series of lines separated into groups called stanzas. A poem can be rhyming or nonrhyming, with a regular meter or a free flow of polyrhythms. My group had choosen a poem by Dylan Thomas,Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’. Dylan Thomas (27 October 1914-9 November 1953).He was a Welsh poet and writer.This poem convey the universal theme of anger against death,The structure of this poem is in villanelle form .A nineteen –line lyric poem that relies heavily on repetition. Dylan openes the poem with ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’,the backbone and also the focus of the poem ‘That good night refers to death.’Going gently’ refers to giving up and passively accepting death.’Do not go gentle into that good night’ is an imperative command probably to exhort his father not to give into death without a fight for deathand ‘rave’out his last words,’rage’ against the approach of death instead of passing on passively. The literary devices that are used in the poem are metaphor,paradox and repetition.The examples for metaphor are ‘dying of the light ’ refers to light that shine s to prove existence.The second examples of metaphor and exaggeration is in line ten’wild men who sang the sun in flight’ reveals that men often learn to late to change their actions. ‘Blind eyes could blaze like meteors’ in line fourteen is an example of simile,refers to the bright light many often reported seeing in near death experiences.In line seventeen,’curse,bless me now with your fierce tears,I pray’,is an example of paradox.It tells that the son is begging his father to scream ,shout and bless him at the same time the son is willing to listen to anything his father would say to him.The son tries to motivate his father by encouraging him to be calmer,avoid thinking the negative side of death.By doing so,the son himself are able to encourage himself to be more condone by try to forget any dispute between them. I think this poem has a fierce and bitter tone,which reflects Thomas’ feelings of anger at the prospect of his father.Words such as burn,rave,rage,fierce and phrases such as forked no lightning,caugh and sang the sun in flight,binding sight,blaze like meteors are very colourful and contain violent connotations which reflect the feelings of anger and frustration that Thomas feels about his father’s death.The rhythm pattern of the poem and the rhyme scheme give the poem a solemn and serious feel,which helps to create the mood of the poem.The repetitions create an insistent tone,which emphasizes both the massage of the poem and the mood and atmosphere created.

Through this poem, we can see that the Thomas is trying to construe readers about how he feel when he facing his dying father, and on how he encourage his father to be more stronger  in order for him to facing his imminent death. He encourage his father by referring to wise man, good man and compared it with wild man and grave man, in order for him to be able to see how the strength of a positive mind will able to make one’s mind into a more prepared and ready mode. By making the comparisons, Thomas actually want to tell his father that to think about his previous situation which is when he is more stronger, healthier and courageous. By taking back his father memories through the words, he hope that his father  will able to cope and accept current situation and whatever result that he may facing in due time.Thomas tells us to approach death in such a way.Using three examples of men ,grave,wise and old he illustrates a universal ideas implying that every person at the end of  his life regrets how he lived life.The only way to keep this from happening is to live life to the fullest,experiencing as much as we can from now until that day of reckoning.Death is inevitable,leaving us no hope of escape.