DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT by Dylan Thomas

1. By Sam Evans DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT by Dylan Thomas

2. Literary Terms • 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 theyDo not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light. • Symbols • Personification • Villanelle • Iambic Pentameter

3. Literary Terms • 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 sightBlind 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. • Symbols • Assonance • Allusion • Simile

4. Explication • 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. • People should fight Death instead of embrace it

5. Explication • Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night. • The speaker is saying that even though you know death is approaching, you should still fight it.

6. Explication • Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light. • Good men wish they could live longer so they can do more with their life

7. Explication • 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. • Sinners realize that they did not live a good life. They relive the mistakes they made

8. Explication • Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. • Even though you can see death coming, you can still be happy and live life to the fullest

9. Explication • 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. • The speaker’s father is on his death bed. The speaker is telling is father one last time to try and fight death

10. Dylan Thomas • Born October 27, 1914 • Loved Poetry from young age • Very Sick • Alcoholic • “Do not go gentle into that good night” wrote in 1951, published in 1952 • Died 20 October 1953

11. Personal Analysis • The poem deals with death of a father • The speaker is telling his father to fight death • Dylan Thomas is the speaker of the poem

12. Critical Analysis • Supportive “[Thomas] is advocating active resistance to death not sad mourning after it” (Wetspahal 113) “ ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ was addressed to Thomas’s father, David John, known as D.J” (Cyr)

13. Critical Analysis • Contradictive “The speaker is a man in purgatory looking back on his life” (Jaworoski) “[Do not go gentle into that good night] is a poem of a man trying to desperately to hold on to the powers that keep him alive” (Goldberg)

14. Works Cited • Cyr, Marc D. "Dylan Thomas's "do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night": Through "Lapis Lazuli" to King Lear." Papers on Language and Literature 34.2 (1998): 207-17. ProQuest. Web. 14 May 2013. • Goldberg, Stefany. “D.J and Dylan on Father’s Day” The Smart Set from Drexel University. 14 June 201. • Jaworowski, Ken. "Dylan Thomas, Rediscovered within His Own Words." New York Times: C.2. Dec 11 2009. ProQuest. Web. 14 May 2013 . • Westphal, Jonathan. "Thomas's do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night." The Explicator 52.2 (1994): 113-. ProQuest. Web. 14 May 2013.