Battle against the kingdom of darkness and the death culture that wants to dim our brightness and light The speaker of the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas seems to think it is not honorable or befitting for a great or interesting man or woman to die quietly in old age and he encourages the reader to think that death is something that should be fought rather than mutely accepted. Interestingly, this poem can be divided into three parts, the first of which acts as an introduction to the speaker’s message. This is followed by four stanzas that offer examples of what he is expressing followed by the last stanza, the third part, in which the tone becomes far more personal as the speaker talks about his father. In many ways, one could read this poem and provide the suggestion in an analysis of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” saying it is as a statement about living a strong life and refusing to go down quietly just as easily as it can be read as a poem about death and the process of dying or aging. When the speaker of “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas states in the second line of the first stanza, “Old age should burn and rave at the close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of that light” he is expressing the idea that moving toward death should not be something we do in a resigned way, but rather that we should fight it and go out in a blaze of glory. When he says, “rage, rage against the dying of the light” it is clear that the dying light is means darkness, which is a metaphor for death and that in old age, we should “burn” with life, which brings to mind images of brightness, light, and life. This first stanza almost acts as something of a thesis statement for the rest of the poem since it clearly defines and outlines the speaker’s beliefs about aging and death.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 21:22:42 +0000
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