Dylan Thomas - Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night

doubting Thomas was influenced by Gerard Manley Hopkins (Korg 11-25). An run of one of Thomas' poesys will demonstrate his abilities as a poet.

'DO not GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT'

This poem's seeming simplicity causes it to be somewhat resistant to analysis. Harvey Gross states: "I can deem of no other villanelle in the language which seems so slender contrived (Kershner 226).

A villanelle is a fixed nineteenline random variable, sooner French, using only twain rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern. Therhyme scheme is aba aba aba aba aba abaa. The poem we are analyzing ends in a couplet. The basic meter is iambic pentameter. Thus, the poem consists of tercets with a closing quatrain. This type of verse was origin whollyy a roundsong of farm laborers. The name villanelle is derived from the Latin word villa, or farm. Medieval French villanelles were irregular in form, but during the sixteenth century the form became fixed as it is known today. The villanelle lends itself to seriousness, as wall as lighter moods (Wood 87).

Although Dylan Thomas may have written 'Do Not Go engaging into that Good Night' for his father, it really applies to the whole human race. We are all destined to grow old and undergo the ultimate consequences. This is not an easy thing to accept; however, it is the fate of every man, who does not understand why we exist for awhile, then go

to an uncertain destiny. As the first stanza states: "Do not go gentle into that soundly night,/Old age should burn and rave at close of day;/Rage, indignation against the dying of the light.

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Thomas is looking at death in a very materialistic manner. There are no spiritual or theological strengths that he mentions or recommends in the poem. Rage against the universe presents to a greater extent of an existential problem than anything else. mayhap death is absurd in the existential sense. It has no more meaning than the universe itself. Death is possibly the final form of alienation with which we must contend. According to the existentialist perspective, we must run across meaning where there is no meaning.

If one has had a good life and loves his or her situation, it is only natural to rage at losing it all. But, if such religions as Christianity are correct, there is something infinitely let on on the other side. However, Thomas was not interested in the spiritual considerations; and so, the second stanza says: "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."

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