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Dylan Thomas 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'

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Recommended: Death in poetry

The theme of death is a similar idea explored by the poets, Dylan Thomas, Wilfred Owen and Kenneth Slessor. The literary devices, imagery and structure convey their messages of death.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and Five Bells explore death through natural causes in life while Dulce Et Decorum Est is Owen’s own experience as a soldier during World War One and Futility is Owen’s general perspective of life and death throughout.

The messages of death are conveyed through literary devices. In Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Thomas expresses how people “do not go gentle into that good night”, meaning they do not give in to death. As an extended metaphor, it is repeated throughout the poem to emphasize how Thomas believes it …show more content…

Thomas in Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, uses a simile to describe how “blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay”. This simile shows how the “grave men” or serious men, try to resist death and they plan to leave with such an impact that they “blaze like meteors”. Similarly in Dulce Et Decorum Est, Owen’s imagery is conveyed through the use of similes. Owen implements similes to compare the soldiers to “beggars” and “hags” in the first two lines. This gives the audience a vivid image of how the young men, once strong, were now reduced by warfare to look like those who were sickly and crippled. Owen again uses a simile to describe a man who is a victim of a mustard gas attack. He is described as a man “Flound’ring… in fire or lime”. “Flound’ring”, normally refers to fish and “fire” and “lime” burns. Owen is comparing how the man is “flound’ring” like a fish and being burnt. The man dies and “his hanging face” haunts Owen as the life is escaping his “froth-corrupted lungs” through onomatopoeic words such as “gurgling” and “gargling”, . This aids the audience’s understanding of what the battlefield and the victims really looked like. Slessor uses metaphors in Five Bells to convey imagery that is dark and eerie like “one rip of darkness”. Slessor uses metaphors throughout his poem to convey how the darkness reminds him of his dead friend as Lynch was “so dark [he] bore no body, had no face”. The imagery of water is significant as it suggests time, one being a measurement while the other a reference to memory. Time is both “little fidget wheels” and “the flood that does not

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In Thomas's poem, he tells us to fight against death and not just let it happen quietly. He says, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." This means we should not let our lives end without a fight, but we should try to live fully. Both of these writings show us that even

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The author used a villanelle poem structure, which consists of nineteen lines, with two repeating lines throughout. In this instance, we get the line “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” (Lines 3, 9, 15, 19) and the line “Do not go gentle into that good night” (Lines 1, 6, 12, 18). Villanelles often get used for poems and works that have more broad themes, for example, life and death. They also deal with the natural world as well. Possibly, Thomas chose this particular structure because his themes deal with the natural world itself, as death plays a part in it.

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The word “drowning” has connotation of death as it implies that Owen was “helpless” when he “saw” his friend ‘drowning’ in the “green sea”. Perhaps, it suggests that how dangerous and deadly the “green sea” could cause and the horrific nature of war. The word “sea” has connotation of vast as it states the range of the gas attack is broad. Also, it might suggest that the gas attack is perilous and unpredictable. Owen uses this gruesome and grisly image to emphasize it is not sweet and honorable to die for one’s country.

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Mortality has been fought since human consciousness first erupted out of an empty abyss. The uncertainty of what happens after you die has frightened humans for thousands of years, resulting in religion, modern medicine, and thanatophobia. In “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the narrator pleads to his father not to accept his death and continue fighting to live. Thomas expresses his beliefs through repetition, metaphors, and familiar diction. The first stanza serves as an exposition for the rest of the poem.

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Following his opinion of death being the wrong destination to go, Dylan Thomas presented his reaction toward death- rage. In the beginning of the poem, Dylan Thomas had a reaction of rage that was almost similar to forcing his father not to pass away. In the second stanza, Dylan Thomas wrote “Though wise men at their end know dark is right, / Because their words had forked no lightning they / Do not go gentle into that good night” (4-6). This stanza expressed the way Dylan Thomas reacted with rage. Rage was present in this line due to Thomas saying the “wise men” knew the “dark was right” because their “words had forked no lightning.”

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The Gentle Night Throughout time, literature and art have been some of the most powerful methods that individuals have used to express their strongest and most powerful emotions. In "Do not go gentle into that good night," Dylan Thomas presents a powerful and emotional plea for his dying father to fight against death with all his might. This iconic poem has become a staple of English literature, known for its evocative language and powerful imagery. Through his use of figurative language and powerful words, Thomas conveys a sense of urgency and desperation, urging his father, and by extension, all of us, to resist the inevitability of death.

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Death Mortality comes in various types of forms. Each individual at some point in their life has to deal with death, whether it is welcomed or not. In “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, by Flannery O’ Connor, “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne, and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell. Each one of the stories represent death in some type of way, they each have to face the mortality to life whether it be from fear, or murder.

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For example, when he says “Old Aunty Death Don't hide your bones,” she’s dead she can’t hide them. In the fifth and sixth stanza he explains how his father's death influenced him to write a poem. He considers death an art. Death taught him it’s apart of life.

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In the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” the poet uses a metaphor to compare death as “night” and “dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas repeats the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” in each stanza to emphasize that all men should not accept death, but fight it until their last breath. He describes four types of dying men before addressing his father. First, he states that intelligent men that know death is near and have not had any impact on society still fight to live: “though wise men at their end know dark is right, / Because their words had forked no lightning they / do not go gentle into the good night.” (Lines 4-6).

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Owen uses visual imagery depicting “mist panes and thick green light”. This depiction aligns well with primary sources of gas attacks. In J Brooman’s “The Great War” (1985), a British officer describes the effects of a gas attack. The officer describes the cloud of gas a “strange green cloud of death” he furthers this through his depiction of the soldiers “running blindly in the gas cloud, and dropping with chests in heaving agony”. This and Owens' depictions align nicely, and this accuracy helps him further communicate the horrible experiences of the youth in WWI.

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