DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT dylan thomas

form/structure

• villanelle

• iambic pentameter

• masculine word enedings

• thomas broke trasition because a villanelle usualy has 5 tercets and 19 lines

• ABA ABA rhyme scheme

• enjambmente

• first stanza is an imperative call

key poems to compare with

• poem at thirty nine

• IF-

• the tyger

• remember

language

oxymoron: ‘curse bless me now with your fierce tears’ imperative

metaphor:’know dark is right’ dark = death

symbolism: light and dark to symbolise life and death

dynamic verbs: burn, rage , rave represent a fighting spirit

plosive alliteration:explosive and energetic atmosphere

context

dylan’s dad died at a young age and his mental health declined rapidly afterwards. he was an alcoholic with an unhappy marraige who discovered poetry as a way of exploring his emotions. he then died a year after his father’s death due to pneumonia and a weakened immune system

key themes

• death

• parenthood

• love

• masculinity

speaker/voice

• third person omnicient

• to explore different type of men

• final stanza shifts to first person

• which shows that he has been talking about his father

• dont accept death fight at all costs

• great men make a large imapct

• grief is painfull and passionate

summary

old men should fight for their lives rather than accept death.

smart people understand that death is inevitable but are not satisfied so refuse to peacefully accept death.

good people mourn their past lives and regret not achieving more.

daring people have lived life to the fullesy realize that they must die but refuse to accept death.

serious people realize who have lost their sight

his dad was a serious person and does not ant his dad to peacefully accept death

key quotes

‘ do not go gentle into that good night’

repetition, eponymous line, imperative, molossus, a euphemism for death, anaphora

‘rage, rage against the dying of the light’

assonant rhyme that unites anger, power, madness, and frustration in a whirlwind of emotion.

‘wild men who caught and sang in the sun in flight and learn too late.’

sibilance ssssss

One could also relate this line to Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the sun and, “too late,” learned that it caused his waxen wings to melt, eventually falling to his death.

‘And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears’

oxymoron, shift in tone and person, imagery, Notice how much more punctuation there is in this stanza: reading aloud would slow the pace. Dylan Thomas is speaking personally — emphatically and emotionally.villanelle ends with the four-lined stanza that draws together at the end of the two key lines. Thomas links the final stanza to the first, showing the circle of life and giving a cyclical nature to the poem. We are all born and we all die, but a new generation emerges