Do Not Go Gentle Into The Goodnight.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas
1914-1953

Dylan Thomas was born in Wales in 1914. He was a neurotic, sickly child who shied away from school and preferred reading on his own; he read all of D.H. Lawrence's poetry, impressed by Lawrence's descriptions of a vivid natural world. Fascinated by language, he excelled in English and reading, but neglected other subjects and dropped out of school at sixteen. His first book, Eighteen Poems, was published to great acclaim when he was twenty. Thomas did not sympathize with T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden's thematic concerns with social and intellectual issues, and his writing, with its intense lyricism and highly charged emotion, has more in common with the Romantic tradition. Thomas first visited America in January 1950, at the age of thirty-five. His reading tours of the United States, which did much to popularize the poetry reading as new medium for the art, are famous and notorious, for Thomas was the archetypal Romantic poet of the popular American imagination: he was flamboyantly theatrical, a heavy drinker, engaged in roaring disputes in public, and read his work aloud with tremendous depth of feeling.

In the spring of 1936, Dylan Thomas met Caitlin MacNara, a dancer. They met in the Wheatsheaf public house, in Fitzrovia the area of London's West End. They were introduced by Augustus John, who was MacNamara’s lover at the time (there were rumors that she continued her relationship with John after she married Thomas). A drunken Thomas proposed marriage on the spot, and the two began a courtship. On 11 July 1937, Thomas married MacNamara at Penzenceregistry office in Cornwall. In 1938, the couple rented a cottage in the place Thomas was to help make famous, the village of Laurghen, in Carmathenshire, West Wales. Their first child was born on 30 January 1939, a boy whom they named Llewelyn Edouard (died in 2000). He was followed on 3 March 1943 by a daughter, Aerowy. A second son, Colm Garan Hart, was born on 24 July 1949. The marriage was tempestuous, with rumors of affairs on both sides. In 2004, Thomas's passionate love letters to MacNamara were auctioned.

Lastly, he became a legendary figure, both for his work and the boisterousness of his life. Tragically, he died from alcoholism at the age of 39 after a particularly long drinking bout in New York City in 1953.

Analysis

Thomas watched his father, formerly in the Army; grow weak and frail with old age. Thus, the speaker in his poem tries to convince his father to fight against imminent death. The speaker addresses his father using wise men, good men, wild men, or serious, somber men as examples to illustrate the same message: that no matter how they have lived their lives or what they feel at the end they should die fighting. However, we are subtly reminded throughout the poem that their rage will be futile in the face of death. It is one of Thomas' most popular, most easily accessible poems, and implies that one should not die without fighting for one's life.

Another explication is that the speaker admits that death is unavoidable, but encourages all men to fight death. This is not for their own sake, but to give closure and hope to the kin that they will leave behind. To support this, he gives examples of wise men, good men, wild men, and grave men to his father, who was dying at the time this poem was written. There is little textual evidence for this interpretation, however, except the words "curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray." Also, it has been historically stated that Thomas never showed this poem to his father; if so, it would seem that Thomas composed it more for his own benefit than his father's.
A third reading of the poem observes the possibility that the speaker's listing of various reactions of men in their final hours is a self-addressed rationalization of his father's scolding catharsis before passing on. The line "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray," might then suggest a negative interaction between the two generations, and because historical evidence leads readers to believe that the poet never in fact showed this poem to his father, it would not be ridiculous to think that Thomas wrote the poem knowing that his father was not the designated audience at all. He cites all of human beings' rage, regardless of disposition, against death, and perhaps attempts to write off this negative interaction as a natural byproduct of death's impending arrival.

Another reading of this poem shows the author's own fear of death. He seems to fear having little separation between life and death such as in John Donne's poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", where:
"As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

It shows the author's fear that there is very little that separates life from death. As such he feels the need for a strong indication of the difference between the two. It does not even matter whether he is being blessed or cursed; he wants to see a reaction. The poem could be written as well in the hope that the speaker would be able to see his dying father. He gives the impression that since wise men, good men, wild men and grave men all regret leaving this world his father as well should not want to leave this world without a fight. It seems to be a wild hope, that he will be able to see his father before he passes; that each will be able to say those last words to each other - whether curses or blessings.

On a more spiritual reading, "Father" may refer to God, and that is why He is on that Sad Height, knowing that His Creations are mortal and will die, and that the only interaction thereafter would be on Judgment Day, when either the soul will be blessed or cursed, but even then the Judge would shed tears for the soul being cursed, for such is the Infinite Mercy of the Almighty. If such an interpretation is accepted, then the entire poem becomes a man's interaction with His God, a personal as well as universal dialogue, not merely in respect of one's own death, but also that of the passing of Great Religions, but in a more strident and glorious manner than Matthew Arnold's Greek standing on a far northern strand, gazing upon a fallen Runic stone, for both were faiths and both were gone, where the Greek represents a religion and lifestyle that Time has passed by, just as the Druids and the Runes.

Literary devices:

The form on the poem is a villanelle, with a rime scheme alternating “night” and “day.” “Good night” is a metaphor and a pun. “Dying of the light” is a metaphor. “Old age should burn and rave” in line two is a combination of metonymy and personification. “Close of day” is a metaphor. “Burn” in that same line is used metaphorically, as is “dark” in line four. In line five “their words had forked no lightning” is metaphorical. Line eight “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay” employs personification and metaphor. Line ten “Wild men who sang the sun in flight” is exaggeration and metaphor. Line 11 “they grieved it on its way” is also exaggeration and metaphor. Line 13 “Grave” is a pun; “blinding sight” is an oxymoron. Line 14 “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors” is a simile. Line 17 “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray” is a paradox.
Commentary:
A villanelle is a French poetic form that originally served as a vehicle for pastoral, simple, and light verse. That Thomas would employ that form for the subject of death enhances the irony of beseeching a dying person to rage. No doubt the poet also chose this form because of the repetition of the important lines, “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and because of the tight formal structure of the form. The subject matter which is the command to the father not to accept death so easily lends itself to the dichotomy of “day” and “night” which become somewhat symbolic for “life” and “death” in the poem.
Each of the six stanzas has uniformity and a specific purpose:

Stanza 1: The first line is a command, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Paraphrased, “Don’t give up easily.” The second line offers the speaker’s belief that even when old and infirm, the man should stay energetic and complain if necessary as long as he does not give in to death easily. Then line three again is a command, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”: Fight, complain, rail against the oncoming of death.

Stanzas 2, 3, 4, and 5 each try to persuade the father to “rage against the dying of the light” by offering evidence of what wise, good, wild, and grave men have done. For example and to paraphrase stanza 2: Even though wise men know that they cannot keep death away forever and especially if they have not accomplished their goals in life, they don’t accept death easily; they “Do not go gentle . . . .” Similarly, in stanza 3, good men exclaim what might have been, their “frail deed” might have shone like the sun reflecting off the waters of a “green bay,” and they, therefore, “Rage, rage” against the oncoming of death. Likewise, in stanza 4, wild men whose antics seemed to shine as brightly as the sun and who thought they were so optimistic, but later realized they spent much of their life in grief, still they “Do not go gentle . . . .” And in stanza 5, grave men whose eyes are fading fast can still flash life’s happiness, as they “Rage, rage . . . . ”

Stanza 6: The speaker addresses his father. Paraphrased, “And so my father you are nearing death—yell at me, scream at me, cry out; to see you do that would be a blessing for me and I beg you to show me that militant man you once were: “Do not go gentle . . . . ”