Poetry Essay, Research Paper

Don t Give In

Dylan Thomas s poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, is an

urgent plea from Thomas to his dying father, and all men not to give in

to death. Thomas uses himself as the speaker to the make the poem more

personal. The message of the poem is very inspirational. Throughout

the poem, Thomas uses different imagery and language to illustrate the

tension between action and inaction.

The first stanza helps summarizes the meaning of the poem, urging old

men to fight death. In the first stanza of the poem Thomas uses

assonance, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; / Rage, rage

against the dying of the light. (2-3) The use of age in the second

line, and rage twice in the third depict assonance. Here Thomas is

trying to disprove the notion that old age is a time to rest, and a time

to look back with wishful regrets on one s experiences.

The middle four stanzas are examples of various types of men, their

trials of life and the whisper of death upon them. In third and fourth

stanza Thomas uses metaphorical imagery such as, Good men, the last

wave by, crying how bright / their frail deeds might have danced in a

green bay. (7-8) In this line personification is used, He say s, that

frail deeds might have danced in a green bay. (8)Here Thomas is saying

that Good men wish that their efforts to help others had been of greater

consequence in the end, but they say that with more luck they could have

accomplished more of their goals.

In the fourth stanza, Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight /

And learn to late that they grieved it on it s way. (10-11) Here he is

saying that wild men do not have to live in past with regrets of

experiences not appreciated. Wild men hasten their own death with their

dangerous living, and grieve in their dying days. This is also metaphor,

because he is comparing two unlike objects.

He begins the fifth stanza with an example of alliteration, Grave men,

near death, who see with blinding sight / Blind eyes could blaze like

meteors and be gay. In these lines death and life is further

exemplified. He also enforces the idea that death is not grave, that we

should open our minds to the intense feeling that we can experience at

the end of life. He also feels that grave men remain serious and blind

as they die, though they could be happy and