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 grief in their dying days.
The Essay on Comparing Poems about Death
... written by Dylan Thomas and “Dog’s Death” written by John Updike are very good poems to compare and contrast ... there are five stanzas in the poem. A stanza is a set of lines in a poem, set apart ... repetition and rhyme a lot in this poem. He repeats “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and ... say alive. He mentions that “Good men, Wild men and Grave men” (Clugston, 2010) eventually do pass away, ...
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.
