Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night

On October 22, 1914, Dylan Thomas was born at Swansea, Wales. His only formal education was obtained at Swansea Grammar School. From 1931 to 1932, Thomas was employed as a journalist for 'The Herald of Wales' and 'The South Wales Evening Post', writing articles on literature and the theater. He published his first volume of poetry, Eighteen Poems, in 1934. In September 1936, Thomas published another volume of verse called TwentyFive Poems. He married Caitlin Macnamara on July 12, 1937 in Penzance. New Poems was published in February 1946. Because of Thomas' radio work and poetry readings in England and the United States, he attained considerable popular appeal. His tempestuous marriage and his alcoholism influenced much of Thomas' reputation as a literary personality. It was Thomas' overindulgence in alcohol that led to his death on November 9, 1953 in New York.

Other writings by Thomas include such prose works as Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940), which is a collection of stories about his childhood and youth. The title is an indication of Thomas' admiration for James Joyce. Thomas wrote a radio play called Under Milk Woodits premiere was at the Fogg Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 3, 1953. The play was read by Thomas himself.

Thomas' poetry is notable for its lyrical qualities; its surrealism; its compact, intense metaphors; its u

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inst the poet's father's death enacted by the alliteration of protesting 'g's' in the repeated injunction. Enacted too by the incantatory switching of repeated lines, as if to charm the dying man back to life" (Holbrook 52). It would seem, however, that the poem deals with more than Thomas' father, as was previously suggested. There is a universal theme that strikes out against the inevitability of death. But looking at the poem from the concept that the father is the central focus of the poem, we might view Thomas as a poet of passionate resistance. The line which says 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light' shows Thomas persuading his father to reject, to criticize, to state the significance of life by raging against death. Whether the father's tears consist of a curse or a blessing on his son, they would be preferable to this gentle and impotent silence. Thomas' exhortation develops into prayer: "And you, my father, there on the sad height, /Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray." William T. Moynihan states: "the father's silence threatens to refute a way of life and to reject that critical iconoclasm which was for Thomas the only means, whether expressed in love or hate, by which value would be found by m
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Approximate Word count = 1489
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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