7.                Dylan Thomas                                                   Do not go gentle into that good night.

Essay:

1.       “Do not go gentle into that good night” is one of the finest villanelles in English literature – Comment.

2.       Discuss the critical observation that “Dylan Thomas has great mastery in handling varying moods”.

Dylan Thomas is a famous Welsh poet and is regarded as a typical Romantic poet. His poem titled “Do not go gentle into  that good night” is one of the finest villanelles in English literature. It is a nineteen-line pastoral lyric poem. The occasion for writing this poem is a shocking news that the poet heard of his beloved father who was dying of  cancer. This sad news pained the poet very badly and he wanted to read out this poem to his daddy, but failed. He could complete this poem only after the death of his beloved father. In the poem Dylan Thomas says that life and death are twins and go together till the end of a person. Night is the  metaphor of death. The poet tells the old people to fight death till the last breath. They should not welcome death , but resist it and resist the dark. Do not go gentle into that good night means don’t blindly obey death but fight violently against the good night (death). Thomas asks his father to resist death by his strong will power and thereby delay death. We cannot avoid death, because it is our birth right and inevitable for every creature born in this  world.

The wise people know well that death is  inevitable and comes at the end of life. They neither said nor did anything to shock the world. So they should not go gentle into that good night which is death. They should always fight against death.

Now Dylan Thomas advises good people to fight against death. Good  people always welcome death with peace and happiness. But they must know that if they fight against death even in old age, they can do a lot of good things which will benefit the life of many people in the world. So they should continue to resist the dark till the last breath.

Courageous people did a lot of heroic things and enjoyed life to its full but learned very late that death is at last coming to them. But be brave and fight death till the last moment. Please don’t go to death in silence and peace but resist the darkness till the last breath.

The great thinkers and serious minded people will come to know that the death is the end of their life. But they must know that even blind people will get good position and pleasure in life and get full of light and happiness. Therefore serious people should not accept death in silence and peace but fight death till the end.

Finally, Dylan Thomas speaks to his dying father. The narrator imagines that his father has reached the top of the mountain of life with bag-full of burdens on his aged shoulders. The son begs his beloved father to hand over him the burden  of blessings, curses and gift of his passionate emotions.

He also makes a prayer to his father to continue to fight against death till his last breath. The death is compared to  the golden light of the setting sun. After the golden light comes pitch darkness.

kjt/-20-03-2020