Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas
Legal Alien by Pat Mora
W. H. Auden explained poetry as “ a language which tells us, through a more or less emotional reaction, something that cannot be said.” “The Times They are a Changin'” by Bob Dylan, “Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas and “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora are all speaking of changing worlds, however the emotional context is far different. In “The Times They are a Changin'” Bob Dylan is telling parents to get out of the way in world where “Your old road is rapidly agin’.” . Conversely, Dylan Thomas is begging his father not to “ go gently into that good night.” Pat Mora is in a far different circumstance, having been raised with both Mexican and American influences she can slide back and forth between two worlds, but is not truly at home in either. Each poet is dealing with transition, but the emotional context is far different. Pat Mora is quietly accepting of her unique position, while Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan are emotional infernos burning against or for change. However, all are speaking a language that is easier to apprehend on an emotional level than on an intellectual one.
The emotional content is not the only difference between these poems. All three have different writing styles as well. Bob Dylan earned the title of America’s troubled troubadour with his songs that called a generation to action in the 1960s. “The Times They are a Changin'” is one of the songs that helped launch his career and earn him that title. A repeating chorus helps everyone stay together. The rhythm is strong, and invites the crowd to sing along, as befits a song that is essentially a revolutionary call to arms. The rhyme scheme is rough and strong as well. Once again, when put into its historical context this is a practical adaptation as well as a stylistic preference. “The Times They are a Changin'” is a song that was written to move, not just a crowd but and nation and to “shatter your windows and rattle your walls.” . This is much easier to do when everyone can remember the lyrics and a health rhyme scheme is definitely an asset in a poem, or song, of this nature.
Dylan Thomas, on the other hand is demanding resistance to change when he prays of his father “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” . It too has rhythm, rhyme and a refrain but the message is far different, as different as its intended audience is. Bob Dylan was writing to move a generation to change a nation and rock the world. Dylan Thomas is crying out with intimately fierce love to his dying father. He will accept curses or blessings, whatever it take to arouse the rage and reignite his father’s spirit, he wants to see him “rage and burn,” and his eyes to “ blaze like meteors.”. Dylan Thomas is calling his father out provoking him to fight, a far cry from Bob Dylan who demands of all parents that they recognize the road is changing and they “get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand.”
Pat Mora is in quite a different situation, born into a family that spans two different cultures, she can function in either but this has its limits. Neither culture fully embraces her, hence her feelings of being a “legal alien.” She copes by “sliding back and forth, between the fringes of both worlds, by smiling, by masking the discomfort.” . The feeling of the poem is quite different; there is no strident anger, no pounding rhymes or demanding refrains. Like Bob Dylan’s work the rhythm has a rocking feel to is but of a far different nature. Dylan is seeking to change the world while Pat Mora slides back and forth between two cultures, just as the poem describes in the beginning, “Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural, able to slip ” between what is essentially two worlds, smiling, knowing she is “being pre-judged, Bi-laterally.” . While Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas rage and pound; Pat Mora flows and slides. The rhythm of the words flows back and forth unimpeded by rhyme and refrains. It is questionable if the same feeling of easily sliding back and forth could be accomplished within a more forcefully stylistic vehicle. The soft feel of the paired and hyphenated words at the beginning and end of the poem is sufficient to convey the feeling of a woman who rocks and slides through a hyphenated cultural heritage.
The three poems, “The Times They are a Changin'” by Bob Dylan, “Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas and “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora all convey a feeling of motion, and movement between worlds, but with an emotion depth and intent that provides powerful contrast. Bob Dylan wants to rock the world, Dylan Thomas wants his father to rage against the dying light while Pat Mora gently slides between two worlds, a stranger to neither and a legal alien in both.
Works Cited
Dylan, Bob. "The Times They are a Changin'." 1963. Bob Dylan. 12 3 2012
Mora, Pat. "“Legal Alien”." Southwest Crossroads. 12 3 2012
Star-Ledger Staff. "A Historical Take on Troubled Troubadour Bob Dylan." 19 9 2010. New Jersey On-Line. 12 3 2012
Thomas, Dylan. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." 1937. The Academy of American Poets. 12 3 2012
