"Do not go gentle into the good night"

hey there 08a07 lit knights!!

do enjoy...and consider the following questions as you do:

1-How is "good night" a pun?

2-What other reason, other than the one we have already given in the podcast, would the persona call his father to "curse, bless me with your fierce tears"?

3-Consider an imagery used in this poem, one you find most striking.

(Btw, when you comment, comment here- at this bl0g- and not on livevideo.com itself. Thanks. This is so that we do not have to sieve through all the comments for your precious ones! HAHA)

Once again,

Have fun!!

ps. Don't leave until you have heard Samuel's rendition!!! It's utterly hilarious!

Benedict, Asyraf and Samuel

Transcript:

Rationale for choice of poem:
Hm. There are probably two reasons why we chose this poem- a moral one, and a literary one. Let’s start with the moral one. The poem starts with an impassioned plea, “Do not go gentle into the goodnight”- which is also the theme of the poem. Without going into too much detail now, it is safe to say that it inspires those whose lives are not up to live their lives with a bang, and not go “gently” into the “night”- which is death- as all of us inevitably moving towards death. Another of its favourite cry is “Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.” This is an encouragement to those who are facing death to fight for their lives and to resist death’s course. Moreover, the fact that the poet wrote this poem for his father, whom he encouraged with both of these declarations to hold onto the struggle against death’s pull, increases the intimacy that the poet has towards the subject matter- that is in one sense, the value of life. Therefore, we chose this poem, firstly, because it flows on a good moral line.

Now, onto the literary reason, we knew we needed a poem that reflects good diction and imagery- and “Do not gentle into the good night” is simply an unavoidable choice, if you have come across it. Firstly, the diction is fantastic. Words like “rage”, “rave”, and “blaze” are carefully chosen and contain depth of meaning in this poem. Secondly, the metaphors of “night” and “light” are brilliant. Thirdly, the oxymoronic phrases stand out to bring even greater clarity to the poet’s thoughts. Therefore, this poem suits our literary taste buds very well.

Themes and concerns:
This poem visits the theme of living- the process, and in the face of death. Dylan Thomas is concerned with the way we should lead our lives. He challenges us to passionate living, and to value life- and not to surrender it up even in the face of death.
He is concerned with the attitudes that different people hold towards living- and challenges us all to make a same resolution, i.e. not to “go gentle into the good night”. This means a refusal to simply be carried by life to its end, but to consciously live life to the fullest.
An intimate concern of the poet is the condition of his father, who was deathly ill, as he wrote the poem to encourage the latter to display the strength he had shown throughout his life to resist death’s pull.

Effects:
The poet, firstly, uses striking diction to communicate the need for us to live life fully- and even not to give up the fight in the face of death. The stereotypical idea of people in their old age is that they are despairing and carrying the mindset that there is nothing for them to look forward to- but death. Yet, the poet advocates a life that would “burn and rave” even at face of death. “Burn” tells us of something aflame, and consumed by heat, and therefore speaks of passion- an ingredient in living life to the full. “Rave” suggests a wild display of anger- and the poet could be advocating the need for discontentment with the stereotypical old age living and to expect more in life. In the famous quote in the poem, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”, “rage” is brilliantly used in this context. “Rage” connotes an element of anger and a spirit of battle- that Dylan Thomas feels should constitute our struggle against death.

In the second stanza, the poet used the word “forked” to describe making impact. The word is poignant because a fork is often applied with effort and force when digging at food, but wise men realized that words by themselves do not involve effort or force, therefore making no significant impact. Therefore, the poet could be challenging us to a life of more than just words- i.e. with actions- in order that our lives would be impactful, and not go “gentle”, without anyone noticing our lives.

In the third stanza, the poet decides to show the contrast between the value of the good deeds when the doers are living and when they are at the face of death. He uses the word “frail” poignantly to show that at death’s face, these deeds are weak and even powerless to turn the inevitable around- yet he uses the word “danced” to show how these good men would have celebrated these deeds and derived joy from them. Again, this contrast challenges us that the only way to face death is to put up a fierce struggle- as joy is at stake.
In the fifth stanza, the word “blaze” is aptly used to suggest the intensity of the flame that would exist in the eyes of a person who has hope.

Secondly, the imageries used in this poem are vivid- to bring out the immediacy of the poet’s ideas. Consider the imagery of lightning: just as lightning lights flashes across the sky and illuminates, so does an exemplary life guides others. The green bay is an image of the land of the living- the color of green symbolising life and progress- it is a picture of growth and is in contrast with death where growth stops. Meteors are a great imagery when talking about hope- because their flame is all-consuming, just as a life lived with hope is one that is consumed with a zeal for life. This is in contrast with “blind eyes” that tend to be expressionless, void of excitement.

Thirdly, the straightforward metaphors used by the poet emphasize the fact that death is natural- and inevitable. Dylan Thomas calls death “night”. Night is the absence of light- which represents the land of the living- therefore it is associated with death. However, the fact that “night” is a natural phenomenon highlights that death- at the end of life- is “right”, i.e. proper. Again, when speaking of death, the poet uses a metaphor of “the last wave”- a wave is something that undoubtedly sweeps up the shore and is unstoppable.
In the fourth stanza, the metaphor of wild men “sang the sun in flight” is easily alluded to idle living- while time passes by. The sun in motion again is an inevitable occurrence- similar to the fact that the pass of time brings us closer to death.

Next, the poet employs oxymoronic phrases- perhaps to suggest that death can be an awakener of the preciousness of time to someone, who has been wasting it away or not living it to the full, yet taking away the time to do otherwise- it causes people to “learn, too late”. Examples of oxymoron include “good night”, “blinding sight” and “sad height”. As explained, “good night” is used- as death can be good and bad at the same time. The second oxymoron explains the fact that this “sight”- perhaps a revelation of truth- is so stunning to the extent that, as the poet declares, it could blind the seer...who was ironically blinded to the truth before the revelation. Now, though their natural sight might have faltered, their eyes of understanding have never been brighter. “Sad height” is oxymoronic as “height” is often associated with success- how high someone has climbed- and yet it is “sad” for the father as the higher he has climbed, the closer it has brought him to death’s door.

Moreover, there seems to be a very staccatoish feeling about the poem as the rhythm is constantly interrupted by punctuations. This may be because the poet is trying to show that something is not as it usually is, hence is trying to show the disturbance in the usual routine of the persona. This is supported by the fact that the title of the poem, “Do not go…” is emphasised constantly throughout the poem that highlights certain stubbornness about going into the “good night” meaning affirming life up until the last breath, rather than learning to accept death quietly.

Finally, in the last stanza, the poet might be suggesting that his father might be all of the above men at different stages of his life- since he gave the father both the challenges- “Do not go gentle into the good night” and “rage, rage with the dying of the light”. The poet juxtaposes the idea of cursing and blessing in fighting on for his father’s own life. This may be because he feels it’s a curse if his father continues fighting on because it might give the poet a false hope that he’ll come around. It could also be a blessing in that his father might come through- if he showed the strength he had shown throughout his life. However, he makes it known that he rather have his father go down fighting rather than give in.