Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, By Dylan Thomas

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Recommended: Father son relationship its importance

Some relationships exist solely between a father and son. Some fathers can change their children's entire view of the world. Imagine if a now famous poet was the child of an English teacher. Would the father of that poet not have influenced his life? Dylan Thomas’s love for his father and their shared love of poetry led the Welsh poet to write the poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” as a desperate plea for his father to fight for his own life. Dylan Thomas’ father inspired him to become a poet. David John Thomas was an English teacher at a local grammar school (“Do Not Go Gentle… ”49). His massive library of literary works fueled Thomas’ interest in the English arts, for he had “everything he needed in a library” (“Do Not Go Gentle…” …show more content…

It is revealed at the end of the poem that he is speaking of his father, pleading him to “rage, rage against the dying of the light” and saying “do not go gentle into that good night.” Thomas was an alcoholic and died a year later by alcohol poisoning in New York on a poetry tour (Karbiener). Perhaps Thomas followed his own advice and lived life to the fullest when his father could not. After his death, Dylan Thomas became a cultural icon (Karbiener). He did not go gentle into that night. Despite his lifestyle, Thomas expressed his ideas in a structured manner. The poem can be applied to everyone in their own lives, and the structure suggests …show more content…

“A villanelle is a French poetic form consisting of 19 lines: five tercets followed by a quatrain, all on two rhymes”(Persoon). The first and third lines of the first tercet are alternately repeated and make the final two lines of the poem (Persoon). These lines are used differently each time they are repeated, and Thomas does this beautifully (Persoon). He repeats “do not go gentle into that good night” or “rage, rage against the dying of the light” when speaking of 4 types of men and repeats both for emphasis when speaking to his father. This emphasis conveys the theme that we must fight death and live life to the fullest, if not for ourselves, then for our loved ones. Some consider that the poem is not giving advice, but is begging almost hysterically to his father (Do Not Go Gentle… 53). Doing this while in the structured form is an example of contrasting

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