Summary Of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

The poem is written by Dylan Thomas and it is entitled, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. From the title alone, one can infer that through this poem, the speaker is trying to advise against surrendering to sleep which is used to symbolize death. The poem is intended for Thomas’ father who appears to be dying; however, it also addresses many other individuals like wise men, good men, wild men and grave men. Although Thomas’ poem revolves around the dreary topic of death, his tone and choice of words talks about it in a hopeful manner. The first line of the first stanza begins with “Do not go gentle into that good night”, reiterating the title. It goes on to state that even in one’s old age, an individual must not succumb to the lure of …show more content…
To begin with, the rhyming scheme of the poem is as follows: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA. The last word of the first and last line of each stanza rhyme together, while the endings of the second line of each stanza have a rhyming pattern throughout the poem. There are six stanzas in total. The first five stanzas are three lines in length, while the last stanza is four lines long. Along with this, every line of the poem is exactly ten syllables. Thomas effectively uses many poetic literary devices to convey his message. Thomas writes, “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay” He uses simile in this line to compare the literal and figurative sense of sight. On a physical level, eyes that have lost their sight and are not longer able to perform their duty, yet Thomas describes them as having intense passion and hope. Although the sight of the grave men is gone, they’re inner passion and reason to keep living continues to shine within them. Another literary device used in the poem is personification. In the last stanza of the poem, Thomas describes his tears as “fierce”, which reveals his emotions to the reader. His tears aren’t just sorrowful because Thomas is fuelled with his intensity and determination to convince his father not to succumb to death easily. Finally, Thomas makes use of paradox throughout the poem. He uses phrases …show more content…
He is only mentioned once in the last stanza and there are no specific details given about his physical attributes or condition. In my first additional stanza, I referred to him as a “valiant knight” who “fearlessly [fights] to see each new day.” This can be interpreted literally, to describe his father as an actual knight; however, it can also be used to describe the daily hardships that his father may have faced and his determination to continue overcome those obstacles. Consonance is demonstrated in the second line in which I wrote: “Fearlessly fighting”. I used a soft repetitive consonant sound to aid with sentence fluenc, and draw the reader’s attention to the words which connect to the theme of the poem. The second stanza describes what Thomas may have seen in the eyes of his dying father. I described his eyes as “green, with flecks of gold so bright” but gradually they fade to “gray like a bleak winter’s day” I used simile to compare his eyes to a dull winter’s day to symbolize a wavering spirit. Although eyes do not physically turn gray when a person is dying, it is meant to be symbolic of a desire to allow death to take over in times of severe pain. I want to convey to the reader his weak state and gradual surrender to death and show a change in the course of the poem. I ended the stanza with “Let not the demons extinguish your light” to show that the battle with death not only takes a toll on the