The Thoughtful Provocation of Life and Death in "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
It is almost certain that “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” was Dylan Thomas’ best and is possibly on the list of the greatest of all time. His utter provocation of the two factors that decide human mortality is genuinely inexplicable, along with his raw hatred towards these forces, almost turning his villanelle into a well-knitted rule to every man to fight their way in life and death. When I first read the piece, my jaw was left hanging, and I hope yours will be, too. Nonetheless, no poet, Dylan Thomas or Edgar Allan Poe, can produce as puissant as this without experience. So what was the story behind today’s piece, and what techniques had engineered it to perfection?
Long Story Short
Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1914, and developed an interest in poetry in childhood. He published his first volume of poetry at the age of 20, and his works were mostly religiously centered, monotonous, and overly imagery-heavy.
His alcoholism had slowed his speed, and between 1934 and 1936, Thomas had only published six new poems. Soon, he married Caitlin Thomas and lived in indigence throughout World War 2, writing many volumes on death from the aspects of war that would gain public attention after the war had reached an end.
A quote from Dylan Thomas: Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.
Dylan published his final volume in 1952, named Country Sleep, which published six of his most famous poems, including “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.”
From 1949 to 1953, in the last four years of his life, Thomas took tours to America to showcase his poems and receive praise from the public. In 1953, Thomas died of bronchitis, pneumonia, and emphysema, which starved his brain of oxygen and pushed him into a coma, soon killing him four days after his diagnosis.
The Writing
Dylan Thomas boldly began his villanelle by asking the reader not to yield to the good night (or death), stressing that we must ‘rage, rage, against the dying of the light’. Thomas calls upon good men, who are the last wave, which might symbolize their youth. Their frail deeds show that their actions might not have been performed to the fullest extent of their will, and Green Bay uses imagery to symbolize their youth once again.
Dylan then calls upon ‘Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,’ which induces a carefree, joyous nature to the men. This is to their demise when they realize, too late, that they too will age and wither away, repurposing the wild men to ‘not go gentle into that good night.’
Dylan Thomas becomes more optimistic about grave men who are even closer to death, with deteriorating eyesight, stating that those eyeballs could blaze like meteors and be happy, even before death.
Finally, in the final stanza, Thomas presents us with an oxymoron and almost begs his father to rage through the good night, giving the father an elderly sense of superiority.
The Theme
If I were to ask my six-year-old brother for the theme, even he would say it would be not to succumb to death and to fight it instead. However, within the poem, we can see that it does not refer to death as a monster requiring slaying but as a calm, good night. So, if death was a good night, succumbing to it would be good, right? Dylan Thomas might say otherwise. If the poet suggests that surrendering to the reasonable force is wrong, then, in fighting death, the poet indicates that one must stay strong until the end.
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Disclaimer: Remember, this is just my honest opinion and what I think of a piece after gathering research and writing it down.
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I'm a massive fan of 'Under Milk Wood' but I've always felt a bit ambivalent about this poem, or at least the sentiment expressed. There's no denying the language is powerful, but isn't raging against the inevitable a futile exercise? Perhaps the gist of it is that the poet is struggling to accept his father's mortality?
Thank you for this. It has to be one of my all time favourite poems. I lived in Wales for many years and being familiar with the accents of south Wales adds a certain additional lyricism to the experience of reading Thomas. Richard Burton's reading of 'Under Milk Wood' could never be surpassed. I have a book of Thomas's collected letters which are delightful to dip into. For one so drunk and so young, he produced a great many words one way or another. We lose so much in the age of the email, the text and the tweet which cannot be mined in the way of paper correspondence.