Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

• Villanelle - 19 lines with 5 tercets followed by a quatrain
• They usually concern obsessions, and the repeated lines (placed in accordance with the form of a villanelle) define the obsession of this poem and his wish to control the actions of his father
• The regular form corroborates this obsession and is indicative of the inevitability of death and the regret people will feel shortly before it comes

Question 2

Main themes

Answer 2

• Death (and inevitability of)
• Memory
• Regret

Question 3

Metre and rhyme scheme

Answer 3

• Consistent iambic pentameter
• Rhyme scheme of ABA ending in ABAA
• The very strict form represents the obsession of his message and of the people who are near the end of their life, as well as his wish to control his father
• It also represents the inevitability of death and the regret people will feel shortly before it comes

Question 4

Main tension in the poem

Answer 4

• The inevitability of death
• The wish people have to stay alive and fight against death due to regrets they have about their life, despite how death will always win

Question 5

‘wise men’ and ‘Good men’ and ‘Wild men’ and ‘Grave men’

Answer 5

• Description of a wide range of men, all with different attributes
• Shows how almost everybody regrets their life and wants to fight against death, indicating that it is human nature
• He is encouraging his father to do this as he views it as important, and is trying to convince him that it is the right thing for everyone to do

Question 6

‘Do not go gentle into that good night’

Answer 6

• Imperative
• Shows how he does not want his father to resign to death
• They represent his wishes, which may not be fully rational, to have his father be around for as long as possible and may be a result of the fear he feels surrounding his death
• ‘Good night’ is a metaphor and euphemism for death, representing his difficulty in accepting death and its impending nature

Question 7

‘Old age should burn and rave’

Answer 7

Imagery of fire and anger represents the aggression he believes old people need to bring to their fight against death, including his father

Question 8

‘Rage, rage’

Answer 8

Repetition of rage further emphasises the aggression he wants his father to bring to his fight against death

Question 9

‘the dying of the light’ and ‘know their dark is right’

Answer 9

• Imagery of light and dark represent life and death
• He feels life as a peaceful end, but one we should fight against for as long as we can
• They are also metaphors/euphemisms which show his difficulty in handling death

Question 10

‘Though wise men’

Answer 10

• Juxtaposition between their wiseness and their regret for the impact they never had
• It is unwise because they are unable to do anything about it, but still do it because it is human nature
• This emphasises how everybody will regret their life and want to fight against death

Question 11

‘Because their words had forked no lightning’

Answer 11

• Metaphor
• Describes how despite the fact that their words were wise, they never truly had the impact they wanted
• They now regret the fact that they never had an impact, so fight against death

Question 12

‘the last wave by’

Answer 12

• Metaphor
• Shows how the feelings of life, regret and then death are cyclical and never ending, confirming their universality and how they are ingrained in human nature

Question 13

‘crying how bright’

Answer 13

• ‘Crying’ is polysemus
• Shows how they are passionately preaching their message, but also have undertones of deep sadness and regret

Question 14

‘Their frail deeds’

Answer 14

• Adjective frail undermines their deeds
• It shows how they believed they had more of an impact when doing them, but are now undergoing realisation, just like the other men
• They therefore feel regret as a result of this realisation

Question 15

‘might have danced in a green bay’

Answer 15

• The modal verb ‘might’ shows how their deeds never had an impact
• ‘Green bay’ represents how they could have done something if circumstances were different, which underpins their regret and is the reason why they are now ‘raging against the dying of the light’

Question 16

‘Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight’

Answer 16

• Metaphor
• Shows how they enjoyed short-lived moments in their life, highlighting how these moments are now over and, like the other men, are undergoing realisation

Question 17

‘And learn, too late’

Answer 17

• Alliteration
• Emphasises the regret of the wild men

Question 18

‘they grieved it on its way’

Answer 18

• Extends of the metaphor of the them ‘catching and singing the sun’ representing fun moments
• It shows how they are now realising how much suffering and grief they really felt, and they feel regret for not enjoying it more
• They therefore want to fight against death to have a chance to relive their good moments and avoid the bad ones

Question 19

‘Grave men’

Answer 19

• Polysemus word
• Describes the men as serious, but also has connotations of death to show that this is how they feel towards the end of their life

Question 20

‘who see with blinding sight/Blind eyes’

Answer 20

• ‘Blinding sight’ is an oxymoron to emphasise how they are now undergoing realisation though losing sight physically
• ‘Blind’ is a polyptoton with blinding, to show how during they life they were never able to see joy because they were grave
• The plosive alliteration creates an angry sound, related to how they are angry at themselves for being so grave

Question 21

‘could blaze like meteors and be gay’

Answer 21

• Metaphorical similie describing the joy they could have felt
• The modal verb ‘could’ represents how they had the capability to feel joy, but they never saw it as a possibility because they were too grave
• However, because they have now realised this, they want to fight against death in order to relive their life with more joy

Question 22

‘And you, my father, there on the sad height’

Answer 22

• Direct address to his father
• ‘The sad height’ is a metaphor for being at the end of his life and all of the regret that accompanies this time

Question 23

‘Curse, bless’

Answer 23

• Antithesis
• Shows how he does not care about the effect of his father’s fight against death on him, but instead just wants him to do it as he simply wants to prolong his father’s life

Question 24

‘with your fierce tears, I pray’

Answer 24

• ‘Fierce tears’ is assonance
• It highlights how he wants to see his father fight against death, regardless of the negative emotions that might be exhibited
• ‘I pray’ shows his desperation due to how he wants to have control over his father because he is scared of his death, and how he sees fighting against death as so important

Praying also shows that he now knows at this point only God has control of the situation