Do not go Gentle into that Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night is a didactic poem written by Dylan Thomas employing Apostrophe as the main literary device. The poem is written in a French style - Villanelle. It is upon the completion of the poem that we awaken to the fact that the poem we is addressed to his father who must have been on the death bed or very near to death.

Reading the title of the poem is not a pleasant experience for any of the readers for it is known that 'gentle' should have been replaced by the word 'gently'. The deliberate application of the word gentle actually describes the nature or mettle of his father and generically - all of us the readers. The poem incites us all into action and encourages us to commat the one and only permanent phenomenon, death. At the first go this statement seems to quite lost upon us all but in the course of the poem it is aptly justified.

Each and every word, well-chosen is but belligerent at its root. The first stanza of the poem sums up the entire theme of the poem.

"Rage rage, against the dying of the light."

"Old age should burn and rave at the close of the day."

These two line are sufficient enough for a sensitive reader to dissect the entire poem suck out the essence like weasel.

The poet is the asking the ones approaching death to get turned on and live to the optimum max. They are supposed to live with such a blazing incandescence that in the virtue of their flash even the youth seems pale and gloomy. Ordinary old age is full of fears, tears and apprehensions of all kinds. Senior citizens at all times are renowned for their whimsical nature and cynical approach towards life and for the depletion of the valor and zest which is the inherent quality of life.  Due to the gradual conditioning of the misery driven society and the personal experience of failures gets hoarded up in the closet of the mind and curtain are drawn upon that 'conscious buffer.' This leads to a feeble frustrated experience which the poet ridicules right from his heart and wants the people to realize and actualize their true potential.

The poet cites various examples of good, wise, wild and grave men. Wise men are the ones who though late in the hour but do realize that they wasted the blessing bestowed upon them for nothing.

"The words of these people couldn’t fork lightening."

Meaning that these people couldn't leave any indelible mark on the face of this earth. Nor did their actions influence or inspired people. Even these people who know themselves to be gross failures don't give in to death. Lightening and fork here are the imageries of power. Throughout the poem we see the imagery of bright light that kindles our sensations and thereby the mental faculty.

The good men are the ones who are much in the hearts and minds of the society, the ones who are pious, virtuous, honorable and trustworthy. Even these people repent at the end of their life for in their personal life they proved to be a failure somehow or the other. They too crib and grumble about the shortcoming of opportunities which otherwise would made a great luminous show!

"The frail deeds dance in the green bay!"

Green is a symbolism of life while yellow refers to death and sadness. Life is compared here to an ocean, life in itself bears infinite possibilities but mind you only possibilities! The yoke of whose actualization in laden on our backs!

Then comes wild who "sang and caught the sun in flight."  These are the successful few of the prodigious lot. They have been able to fulfil each of the dreams and have confidently pursued their goals, achieved them and celebrated in their youth (sun). Even such men are at eb at the time of death for the insatiable desire for more tempts the mankind as did the 'legendary serpent'. They too grieve for not having a little more.

And at last there are "grave men the last wave by." who have lost all of their energy, rigor, and vitality. These people are just on their deathbed. "With blinding eyes they gaze at the meteors." It implies that in this stanza one weakens mentally as well as physically.

But the lust for life never extinguishes and even these people try with all their might - despite the fact that they have got the last vestige of strength that soon would be consumed by the eternal darkness. Here too the imagery of meteors enlighten us.

In the last stanza poet concludes by the witty use of an Oxymoron. "Curse me, bless me, with your fierce tears." The poet ultimately leaves it up to the reader whether to follow his advice and bless him or to reject it and curse him. But in both the cases there ought to be an overflow of emotion as he has dealt with the most fragile topic death, and hence the fierce tears must role down the innocent cheeks!

All in all Thomas advices the people nearing their death to get focused in the moment and complete all that has ever loomed around. They must live to their optimum level and discard any negative feelings or emotions. And who are the people approaching death, is it a hag or teen? Well for that matter we are all mortals! The one pointed goal of each of one of us is to make each moment as rich and as delicious as possible and exploit the ecstasies of life to the fullest! Only then one is deemed to be ready to encounter death just as Socrates did!