There is a special place in my heart for Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." It is used as one of the last 100 poems in America in the book series Matched, and the main character cherishes this poem and quotes it often. The poem is urging the audience not to die without passion or without a fight. One must fight on until the end. The poem was written for Thomas's dying father, and its meaning deepens with that fact.
The poem itself is repetitive, using the lines "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." The repetition causes the words to be more insistent, and its tone remains calming and somewhat reassuring throughout the poem despite its message. It maintains a songlike quality with its repetition, and the chosen words to repeat hammer the message into the mind of the reader. I think Thomas best employs the use of the villanelle, and its subject fits the form of the poem very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment