Discuss symbolism of death in `Don`t go gentle into the good night Essay

Dylan doubting doubting Thomas Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is arguably the most famous villanelle still in English. The rimes subject is expiry more specifically, the remainder of Thomas own father. Critical interpretations of the rime uniformly praise the poems imagery and symbolism, while popular appraisals of the poem center somewhat the poems simplicity of language and its easily memorable, repeated lines. though technically restrained and simple from the standpoint of language and imagery, the poem creates entangled stresss and associations by the changing emphasis of the repeated words and imagery.By do the reader to read the same, repeated words, each time with a different emphasis on meaning and imagery, Thomas attained a knowledge and profundity in his villanelle which seems to take the form itself to an entirely new matt of fount. Part of Thomas extraordinary capacity to express deep themes in the villanelle form is derived from his capable use of sym bolism throughout the poem. Because the poem is around terminal, the symbolic associations in the poem which are tied to Thomas whim of destruction provide the primary emphasis for the poems expression and tension.Merely by reading the title, the reader is furnished with Thomas source and most dynamic symbolic association with death That Good Night. last is symbolized by a good iniquity which indicates both departure and (through analytical progression) the eventual rising of the sun, or resurrection. The tension of the poem is squarely evoked, also, in the title with the verb go providing another symbolic association with death, that of motion, travel, departure and movement. two associations, good dark and go imply activity beyond death. So the admonition do not go by implying stasis, begins the central tension of the poem, right from the title. Lines 2 and 3 extend the symbolism of death into a more complex series of associations, one which includes overtly negative elicitation Old age should burn and rave at close of sidereal daytime/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Here death is symbolized by the close of day and as a dying light.The admonition to not go becomes an warm verb Rage, rage and also burn and rave. Though not explicitly stated, the intension is that life = day, so death = night. By all logic night and day follow one another, of course, so life beyond death is implied in Thomas symbolic associations with death. Further symbolic association with death is made by Thomas use of blindness and rush to identify amongst the dead and the living.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/ Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, and again on that point is good reason to read sight and blindness as symmetrical states, with Thomas so implying that life and death are the same. Meanwhile, with each cease of the poem, he implores Do not go gentle into that good night/ rage, rage against the dying of the light and this is where the suspense and emotion of the poem are generated. The final symbolic association with death that is woven into the poem is Thomas use of the term sad height. These words imply heaven barely also the grief of mortality in one unique say And you, my father, there on the sad height,/Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. The suspense of the poem is broken, finally, by the refrain which by now, the reader realizes cannot wield the subject of the poem (or anyone) from their appointed time with death. because the symbolic associations of the poem severalise death as a both unknown but peradventure beautiful and renewing state of being, the poem has sustained tension and ambiguity.Thomas crafted a poem which posited his subjective experience of his fathers death and his subjective associations with the consequences and realities of human mortality. The poem relies on symbolic associations of a planetary and enduring nature to describe a complex inte rrelationship between life and death and the joy and despair of mortality. It is due to these associations that Thomas poem has become one of the most keep if not the most celebrated villanelle in English.