Biography:
Dylan Thomas:
- was a Welsh poet and writer
- he left school at 16, becoming a journalist for a short time.
- Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara, whom he married in 1937. Alcoholism lead to the destruction of this marriage.
- Although Thomas was appreciated as a popular poet in his lifetime, he found earning a living as a writer difficult, so he started reading tours and broadcasts for BBC.
- In the 1950s, he travelled to America, where his readings made him more famous than he was, but his drinking problem got worse.
- In 1953, he became ill and fell into a coma from which he did not recover.
Important Works:
A Child's Christmas in Wales: a prose work originally emerging from a piece written for radio.It is one of Thomas' most popular works.
Under Milk Wood: is a 1954 radio drama commissioned by the BBC and later adapted for the stage. A film version of this work also exists.
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Dylan Thomas's most famous poem. the most famous example of the poetic form known as the villanelle. Thomas uses this poem to address his father and regret his father’s loss of health and strength.
The speaker says that old men should not give up and dye easily at the ends of their lives. They should resist death as strongly as they can. In fact, they should only leave this world furious that they have to die at all. At the end of the poem, we realize the poet is trying to talk to his father, who is in his deathbed.
The Poem:
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.
Figures of Speech:
In line one we have an extended metaphor in which day represents life, night represents the afterlife, and sunset represents the moment of death.
In lines 10-11 the sun's rapid flight across the sky is still part of the extended metaphor in which day represents a life cycle.
In line 13, we have a paradox: the dying men who have gone blind can still "see," at least in a metaphorical sense.
Line 17: The speaker creates an oxymoron by asking his father to "Curse" but also to "bless" him.
My Own Ideas:
I think this poem is one of the most interesting English poems I’ve ever read. The way Thomas thinks we should approach death is a very unique way of thinking; which shows how much he appreciated life. Ironically and unfortunately he himself died so young.
