2008 - Communication Across the Curriculum (CAC)

P o e t r y E x p l i c a t i o n
Besides repetition of lines, Thomas utilizes several other
literary devices not only to help the flow and rhythm of the lines,
but to better accomplish contrasting images throughout the
poem. The poem has an iambic pentameter that is built around
the end of the first two lines, “night” and “day,” whereas every
first and third line in each stanza rhyme with “night,” and every
second line in each stanza rhymes with “day.” Although these
two words serve as the rhyming scheme’s core, they also serve
as the paradox on which the entire poem pivots: life and death.
Thomas’s emotions are in a constant battle as his father nears
death, which he shows through his diction. He uses alliteration
with words like “go” and “good” in the first line, “deeds” and
“danced” in the eighth line and “blind and blaze” in line fourteen
to give the poem a more “melodic quality” and further create this
contrasting image (Napierkowski 52). “Go” and “good” give the
reader tranquil, calming images as do “deeds” and “danced”
in reference to the “good men.” Thomas uses these images of
tranquility to portray the grief and sorrow he feels as he mourns
over his dying father. “Blind” and “blaze,” on the other hand,
give the reader sharp, fiery images in Thomas’s description of
“grave men.” The assonance in line ten repeats similar vowel
sounds, “ah,” in the words “caught” and “sang.” The half rhyme
in line seventeen repeats the “ss” sound, “curse, bless me now
with your fierce tears, I pray,” in the words “curse,” “bless,”
“fierce,” and “tears.” Both lines produce harsh sounds to the
reader’s ear in order to create more images of fury and “rage.” In
building these images of fierce aggression, Thomas conveys to
the reader his resentment towards his father for reasoning with
death and dying serenely.
Dylan Thomas has written numerous poems about his
understanding of life and death. One of the most similar poems
Thomas has written is the unfinished “Elegy” he was writing
at the time of his father’s death. This poem uses images of
contrasting light and darkness, like “Do Not Go Gentle Into That
Good Night.” Thomas also makes a reference to the “blind” man
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