Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Flashcards
1
Q
Form
A
- 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
2
Q
Main themes
A
- Death (and inevitability of)
- Memory
- Regret
3
Q
Metre and rhyme scheme
A
- 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
4
Q
Main tension in the poem
A
- 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
5
Q
‘wise men’ and ‘Good men’ and ‘Wild men’ and ‘Grave men’
A
- 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
6
Q
‘Do not go gentle into that good night’
A
- 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
7
Q
‘Old age should burn and rave’
A
Imagery of fire and anger represents the aggression he believes old people need to bring to their fight against death, including his father
8
Q
‘Rage, rage’
A
Repetition of rage further emphasises the aggression he wants his father to bring to his fight against death
9
Q
‘the dying of the light’ and ‘know their dark is right’
A
- 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
10
Q
‘Though wise men’
A
- 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
11
Q
‘Because their words had forked no lightning’
A
- 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
12
Q
‘the last wave by’
A
- 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
13
Q
‘crying how bright’
A
- ‘Crying’ is polysemus
- Shows how they are passionately preaching their message, but also have undertones of deep sadness and regret
14
Q
‘Their frail deeds’
A
- 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
15
Q
‘might have danced in a green bay’
A
- 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’
