Assignment

1. Do Not Go Gentle into That Night
The poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Night’ was written by Dylan Thomas in 1945, when his
father D. J Thomas was seriously ill. Title of the poem shows that poet is talking about the
specific night that is death night. The poem was published after his father’s death. This poem
consists of 6 stanzas. Each stanza has 3 lines except last stanza that consists of 4 lines that shows
the address to his father. The poem is structured in a Villanelle. A villanelle is a fixed form of
fixed verse form of French origin. 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. Do Not Go Gentle into That Night’ has iambic pentameter as
the kind of meter. The vocabulary contains seven times as many monosyllables as polysyllables.
Poem consists of metaphor, extended metaphor of death, alliteration and symbols similes. The
poem has the use of parallelism by describing the actions of three different kinds of men, ‘wise
men’, ‘good men’, ‘wild men’ and ‘grave men.’ The speaker wants his father to have the
qualities of these men. The poet has used a number of contrasts like gentle and rage, night and
day, light and dark, blind and sight, grave and grey, curse and bless.
In 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.
In 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.
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 you might and force. ‘Last wave’ can be
interpreted this way. The recent generation of men is termed as the ‘last wave.’ These
generations 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.
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.

2. In the fifth stanza, he describes 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 Dylan’s 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 a twinkle in their eyes, wanting to see
as much as they can before leaving the world.
In the final stanza poet is 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 you
might.