Dylan Thomas was a famous poet and writer who was born in the year 1914 in south Wales, Swansea; he passed on in 1953 in New York City. He wrote Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night as a message to implore his dying father, David John Thomas to fight against death. Thomas’s father was a professor of English literature, and it was his work that motivated Thomas to pursue poetry as he used to recite Shakespeare to Thomas before when he was young. Thomas’s parents were fluent in both English and Welsh, but Thomas was only fluent in the English language. Thomas has a passion for poetry from a young age, he never liked studying with others, and he preferred reading by himself. Thomas was passionate about English as a language to the point that he did not excel in the other subjects. When Thomas was sixteen years old, he dropped out of school and joined the South Wales Daily Post as a junior reporter. In 1932, Thomas resigned his position at the post, and he decided to work on his poetry on a full-time basis. It was during his late teenage years that Thomas worked on his collected poems (Davies 4).
The central theme of Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas is mortality. It is the fate of all human beings to die at some point but to know and accept that fact of inevitable death has never been simple. Thomas’s poem states that death is unavoidable, and it also discusses the passing on of a character that happens to be Thomas’s dying father (Davies 5). The poem uses literary devices to emphasize on the fate that is waiting to everyone, which bring up the question of whether people should struggle to stay alive or accept death and go gentle into that good night.
Thematic Analysis
The central theme of the Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Poem is mortality or in other words the shortness of life. The different themes include old age and the importance of family. Thomas states that all men have to fight death in the first and the second stanza. In the first line of each verse, Thomas discusses how different categories of men approach death; there are the wise, good, wild and grave men. The central theme of mortality can be seen in Thomas’s plea to the men to resist dying. The poet is well aware that death is the fate of all human beings, but Thomas believes that people should not give up easily; this is why he urges the old dying men not to give in to death (Nagaraju 7). The theme of the importance of family can be seen in the last stanza where Thomas urges his father to not give up on life. The tone in the final stanza shifts from being authoritative to that of pleading. The line “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” which is spoken by a son to a dying father emphasizes the importance of family. It also shows how age reverses roles in a family; the son is advising the father, and also it is the parent who is weak and not the child.
Literary Devices
Symbolism
A symbol is a literature tool that contains a more profound meaning as it represents other aspects; a symbol is close to an image the only difference is that symbols include deep hidden meanings, unlike images. The poem contains many symbols, and Guo (127) analyzed the use of symbolism by Dylan Thomas, and the first instance is in the phrase "good night" which symbolizes death or afterlife.
Metaphor
The poet Dylan Thomas uses a lot of metaphors in his poem, Guo (127) analyses one of the instances the poet uses a metaphor which is in the first line of the opening stanza, whereby “night” is the metaphor for death. The other instance is when the poet uses "close of day" which is simply night as a metaphor representing the end of life. The "dying of the light" is a metaphor for life or one’s lifespan which fades away at death. The phrase “the sun in flight” is found on the third tercet of the poem is metaphorical, the day or sun represents life, and the sun that is in flight is metaphoric of how life is short.
Parallelism
Thomas’s poem makes good use of parallelism; the poet lists the actions of the different types of men. The first line of the second, third and fourth stanzas start by listing a particular kind of men, “the wild men, the wise men, the grave men and the good men” (Thomas 1). The poet then goes ahead and describes the extraordinary deeds that the mentioned groups of men have done. The poet then concludes each sentence by commending the said men as they wouldn’t die without a struggle.
Poetry Sounds
Nagaraju (9), states that good poetry has a way of arranging words that form patterns which make sounds. It is the musical sounds of a poem that enhances the meaning of a poem. Thomas makes good use of alliteration and consonance in his poem. Alliteration can be defined as the repetition of the first consonants in stressed syllables. The poet uses alliteration in the words 'go' and 'good' in the opening sentence of the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night"(Thomas 1).
Rhyme
There are two instances of the use of refrains in the poem. The repeated lines can be spotted in the first third sentences of the first tercet; the two lines are used four times throughout the poem. The first line “Do not go gentle into that good night” (Thomas 1) is used in the last lines of the second and fourth stanzas, and finally, it is used in the second last line of the sixth tercet. The refrain is also observed when the third sentence of the first stanza reappears in the third lines of the third and fifth stanzas and the final line of the sixth quatrain. According to Nagaraju (8), repetition of the two refrains brings a musical rhyme to the poem, and it also gives the poem a more profound meaning as the emphasis is placed on the lines.
Conclusion
Dylan Thomas uses literary devices such as metaphors, rhyme, parallelism, alliteration and so on to emphasize the central theme of the poem which is mortality. Thomas believes that people should not give in to death quickly. Although it is the fate of all beings, Thomas urges the characters in his poem especially his dying father to fight death (Guo 129).
Works Cited
Davies, Walford. Dylan Thomas. University of Wales Press, 2014.
Guo, L. "Poetic Analysis on “Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night”." Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 4, no. 4, 2016, p. 127, doi:10.11648/j.hss.20160404.18.
Nagaraju, Ch. "A Study of Dylan Thomas’s Poetry." IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 1, no. 2, 2012, pp. 6-10. http://www.academia.edu/download/28249774/B0120610.pdf
Thomas, Dylan. "Do not go gentle into that good night." Botteghe Oscure (1952).
