Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Group

Question:


bigal369
Student
High School - 10th Grade

When is there a shift in the poet's experience in "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"?

"Do Not Go Gentle into the Night" by Dylan Thomas

Rate question:

Posted by bigal369 on Monday August 17, 2009 at 2:03 PM and tagged with shift, style.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Best answer as selected by question asker.

    As Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" exhorts all who face death to not passively acquiesce to its "close of day," the address becomes personal in the final stanza.  For, in lines 16-17, the poet directly addresses his father, D.J. Thomas, a man of letters who taught his son Dylan to love the written and spoken word.  Also, it is as if  with the death of his father, a part of the poet feels the same "dying light" as he with "fierce tears" suffers against the forthcoming loss of his beloved father.  "Do not go gentle..." can have a dual meaning:  Rage against death; affirm life as long as possible, and Do not leave me.

    This dual meaning is given more significance in light of the fact that Dylan Thomas himself died shortly after his father's death.  Thomas had drunk himself to death, not "raged against the night."

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/go-gentle/summary

    Rate answer:

    Posted by mwestwood on Monday August 17, 2009 at 10:51 PM