Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Poetry Do not go gentle explication paper Do not go gentle explication paper Touching humans the most is the acceptance of unstoppable death. We all know that death will be our fate some day, but how we accept or how we deal with it is left to each individual. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” written by Dylan Thomas, emphasizes raging against death towards his dying father as he repeats this exhortation in the last line in every stanza. Imagery, sound, metrics, and tone, are used by Thomas to create the theme of his poem and what it means. Here is how the imagery of the poem develops the meaning of the poem. First of all, Thomas convey resistance towards death with images of fury and fighting, as in “do not go gentle.” With images of “good night” and “dying of the light,” Thomas conveys death as the end where darkness prevails. He takes his stand within concrete, particular existence. He places birth and death at the poles of his vision. Excessive images of anger and rage towards death exemplify the passion Thomas feels for life. The images of “burn” and “rave at close of day” shows a sense of anger and rage. Contrasting images of light and darkness in the poem create a warmth of living and the coldness of death, so as to discourage people from choosing the dreary, bitter frigidity of death. The images of “wise men” have “forked no lighting” with their words; the “good men” have not “danced in a green bay”; the “wild men” have “learned too late”; and the “grave men” have not used their blinding sight.” Thomas tells his dying father that all men good or evil, smart or ignorant, need to fight against death. Only then, after a man has made his true contribution to society, may that man peacefully be prepared to die. Using four examples of men; wise, good, wild, and grave, he illustrates a universal idea. The four individuals have reached the final end of their lives prematurely. Thomas provokes these men into wanting more time and desiring the courage to fight back against the Grim Reaper. The “wise men” and the “wild men,” regardless of character, deserves the opportunity to live into old age and accomplish what they set out to do. And the “wise men,” who regret the fact that they didn’t do the good deeds they were set out to do, and realizing that it was too late for them to do it. Thomas realizes it is human nature to take life for granted; until death approaches. Thomas wrote this poem for his father, to tell him that there is so much more for him here, living, to do. The only way to deter death is through fury and frenzy. Death comes too quickly for most people and only with “rage” can death be defied. Here is a discussion of how the sound and metrics of the poem help convey that meaning. In the face of strong emotion, the poet sets himself the task of mastering it in difficult form of villanelle. Five tercets are followed by a quatrain, with the first and last line of stanza repeated alternately as the last line of the subsequent stanzas and gathered into a couplet at the end of the quatrain. And all this on only two rhymes. His villanelle repeates the theme of living and fury through the most forceful two lines, “do not go gentle into that good night,” and “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Thomas further compounds his difficulty by having each line contain 10 syllables. Also, the alliteration in “Do not go gentle into that good night,” and the repetition of the word “rage,” in “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” further compounds Thomas’s fury towards death and to not “go gentle into that good night.” Here is how the tone develops the meaning of the poem. The poets word choices shows the tone or attitude of the poet towards his subject matter, his audience, or himself, or the emotional meaning of the poem. For example, he could have chosen such words as, “Don’t give into...” but instead he used “rage,” which lends tone of aggressiveness. He further compounds his aggressiveness, by repeating the same word in the same sentence, “rage, RAGE against the dying of the light.” The second time he mentioned the word “rage,” shows how he wants his father to show rebelliousness against death. Also, Thomas used “good night,” instead of just plainly say “Do not go gentle into that death.” The hidden comparison of death and night tells us death is dark and chilly, just like the night, when the light is out and everything becomes dark around us. The word choice of “burn,” or become inflamed, as with emotion, shows a tone of aggressiveness as well as anger. Also, “blaze” or a sudden outburst of fire or passion, lends a tone of anger and aggressiveness. The used of imagery, metrics/sound, and tone, clearly conveyed the theme of the poem and what it means. Live your life to the fullest while you can. The reason being is the death is inevitable, leaving us no hope of escape. When it is our time to leave, there is no way we can ever stop it. We destined to leave this earth, whether we like it or not. Bibliography: Word Count: 936
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.