Nathan Grey Diefes
English 125
Dani R. Lupton
January 21, 2009
Blog 1: Dylan Thomas-Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Dylan Thomas’ father had been a vigorous, aggressive man most of his life, and when in his eighties, he became blind and weak, his son was disturbed seeing his father become “soft” or “gentle.” In this poem, Thomas is rousing his father to continue being the fierce man he had previously been. It can be easy for us as humans to accept defeat, or in this case to accept the fact that death is coming. However, for those loved ones that are forced to witness this acceptance of the end it can be unbearable. For those of us who seemingly have time left until we reach our judgment, life can be all that there ultimately is to hold onto. This poem is a command to Thomas’s father to not accept death easily, and to “rage against the dying of the light.” In stanza 1 Thomas calls on his father to do this. Stanzas 2, 3, 4, and 5 are persuasive arguments which attempt to convince Thomas’s father that he must not go gently into death by providing examples of men who despite their circumstances still fought death hand and foot. Stanza 2 tells of wise men who know that they cannot avoid death, and especially when they have not accomplished their goals still did not give in easily to death. In stanza 4, wild men whose antics seemed to shine as brightly as the sun and who thought they were so optimistic, but later realized they spent much of their life in grief; still they “Do not go gentle into that good night.” In stanza 5 Thomas talks of men who are blind and near to the grave that can still show the spark of life to be ablaze in their eyes, and “rage against the dying of the light.” The last stanza is a sad request from Thomas to his father asking him to fight against oncoming death. What is thought-provoking to me about this poem is that Thomas’s father is the one dying, but it seems that Dylan is the one who feels the pain of death.
