Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

1. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

2. Dylan Marlais Thomas

3. Biography: • Dylan Thomas was born in the coastal city of Swansea, Wales, in 1914 • His father, David John Thomas (D. J. Thomas) • His mother, Florence Hannah Thomas • His sister, Nancy, was eigth years his senior

4. Thomas was known to be a sickly child • He was considered too frail to fight in World War II • He suffered from conditions such as bronchitis and asthma • because of this sickliness • he served the war effort by writing scripts for the government.

5. In October 1925, Thomas attended the single sex Swansea Grammar School • however, by the age of eight or nine he was writing his own poetry • Thomas' first poem was published in the school's magazine • later he became the editor of the school's magazine • he left school at 16 to become a reporter for the local newspaper

6. His first book, Eighteen Poems, was published when he was twenty • Thomas did not sympathize with other war poets’ thematic concerns • his writing, has more in common with the Romantic tradition • The second book Twenty-five Poemswas to appear in autumn of 1936.

7. In April of 1937 Thomas recorded his first broadcast for BBC Wales, "Life and the Modern Poet“ • He made over two hundred broadcasts for the BBC.

8. Marriage & Children: • On 11 July 1937, Thomas married MacNamara • 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, Aeronwy • A second son, Colm Garan Hart, was born on 24 July 1949

9. Drink & Death: • “An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do.” • “I’ve had 18 straight whiskies; I think this is a record.” • He collapsed on November 9, 1953 at the White Horse Tavern and later died at St. Vincent’s hospital

10. Thomas’ Memorials : • in his home town of Swansea there is his statue • in the city's Maritime Quarter, the Dylan Thomas (Little) Theatre, and the Dylan Thomas Centre

11. Works of Dylan Thomas: -Poetry • Collected Poems 1934 – 1953 (London: Phoenix, 2003) • Selected Poems (London: Phoenix, 2001) • 18 Poems (1934)[OOP] • 25 Poems (1936) [OOP] • The Map of Love (1939) [OOP] • The World I Breathe (1939) [OOP] • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940) • New Poems (1943) [OOP] • Deaths and Entrances (1946) [OOP] • Selected Writings of Dylan Thomas (1946) [OOP] • Twenty-Six Poems (1950) [OOP] • In Country Sleep (1952) [OOP] • Collected Poems, 1934-1952 (1952) • The Doctor and the Devils and Other Scripts (1953) • Under Milk Wood: A Play For Voices (1954)

12. Quite Early One Morning (1954) • Adventures in the Skin Trade and Other Stories (1955) • A Prospect of the Sea (1955) [OOP] • A Child's Christmas in Wales (1955) • Letters to Vernon Watkins (1957) • The Doctor and the Devils and Other Scripts • The Beach of Falesa (1964) [OOP] • Dylan Thomas - a Collection of Critical Essays: Charles B. Cox (ed.) (1966) [OOP] • The Poems of Dylan Thomas (1979) • The Collected Stories of Dylan Thomas (1984) • On the Air With Dylan Thomas: The Broadcasts • Eight Stories (1993) • Dylan Thomas: The Complete Screenplays (1995) • Rebecca's Daughters: A Film Scenario • Fern Hill: An Illustrated edition of the Dylan Thomas poem. [1998]

13. -Prose • Collected Letters • Collected Stories • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940 Dent) • Under Milk Wood • Quite Early One Morning (posthumous) • Adventures In The Skin Trade And Other Stories(1955, posthumous) • Rebecca's Daughters (1965) • After the Fair • The Tree • The Dress • The Visitor • The Vest -Drama • The Doctor and the Devils (1964)

14. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Nightis one of his best known poems • He wrote it during the lengthy illness and death of his father, the strong emotions he experienced helped Thomas produce it • He is criticized for being drunk on language as well as whiskey • no doubt that the sound of language is central to his style • he was also a disciplined writer who re-drafted obsessively

15. Thomas was called as the most spectacular of the surrealist poets • He also acknowledged his debt to Sigmund Freud, stating: "Poetry is the rhythmic, inevitably narrative, movement from an over clothed blindness to a naked vision…. Poetry must drag further into the clear nakedness of light more even of the hidden causes than Freud could realize."

16. The theme of all of Thomas's poetry is the celebration of the divine purpose • The cycle of birth and flowering and death, of love and death, suffuses his poems • He celebrated life in the seas and fields and hills and towns of his native Wales • He sought to recapture a child's innocent vision of the world

17. World War II

18. Causes of World War II: • 1 Anti-Communism • 2 Policy of Appeasement • 3 Expansionism • 4 Fascism • 5 Isolationism • 6 Militarism • 7 Nationalism • 8 Racism • 9 Interrelations and economics • 9.1 Treaty of Versailles • 9.2 Competition for resources • 9.3 League of Nations • 9.4 The Great Depression • 9.5 European Civil War

19. 10 Specific events • 10.1 Franco-Prussian War • 10.2 World War I • 10.3 Weimar Republic • 10.4 Economic depression • 10.5 Nazi dictatorship • 10.6 Italian invasion of Ethiopia • 10.7 Spanish Civil War • 10.8 Second Sino-Japanese War • 10.9 Anschluss • 10.10 Munich Agreement • 10.11 Italian invasion of Albania • 10.12 Soviet-Japanese Border War • 10.13 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact • 10.14 Invasion of Poland • 10.15 Invasion of the Soviet Union • 10.16 Attack on Pearl Harbor

20. Summary of World War II: • World War 2was a fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and, during much of the 1930s and 1940s, in Asia • The war in Europe began in earnest on September 1, 1939 • and concluded on September 2, 1945

21. It was the largest armed conflict in history • However, despite the name, not all countries of the world were involved • The war ravaged civilians more severely than any previous conflict • These included: -the massacre of millions of Chinese and Korean nationals by Japan -internal mass killings in the Soviet Union -the bombing of civilian targets in German and Japanese cities by the Allies

22. In total, World War II produced about 50 million deaths, more than any other war to date.

27. The Birth of Modernism andBack to Tradition: • Between 1910 and 1930 the impetus towards innovation and experimentation gathered pace as Modernist writers published groundbreaking work that made this period one of the most memorable in the history of English literature

28. In 1930s and 1940s,dominated by economic depression and the treat of war, provided further proof how difficult it is to plot the demarcation lines between literary movements, as more traditional forms of expression were again preferred by many authors.

29. Modern Poetry: • The modern strand was best exemplified by the Imagist movement. Poems were generally short, contained hard, condensed, precise images, were written in free verse, employed everyday language and dealt with topical and varied subject-matter.

30. In 1930s and 1940s innovation and experimentation were not uppermost in the mind of poets like W.H. Auden, who often dealt with pressing public issues of the day, though Dylan Thomas, a lone lyrical Welsh voice, found refuge in the private reaches of the heart.

31. Dylan Thomas preferred to deal with private matters rather than public events. His verse is exuberant and full of an infectious vigor that expresses very powerful feelings. In both Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night and In My Craft or Sullen Art the strengthof emotion is an indication of how Thomas felt himself to be a pioneer of a new Romanticism.