O Gather Ye Escapee Poets!

[Melusine]

I agree with a lot of what T_M said...
OK big rambling post coming on, just gonna jot down anything I can think of.

Firstly about the formal characteristics of the poem. A villanelle (from the italian word for rural, rustic) is a highly formalised type of poem with strict rules - critics have often complained they are little more than elaborate exercises in trivial wordplay. It *is* true that it's a VERY difficult style to pull off convincingly, because it will all too soon sound humourous of even ridiculous instead of sincere, mostly because of the scarcity of variation in the rhyme. W.H. Auden, Wendy Cope and Oscar Wilde are some of the writers who made attempts at writing villanelles. A villanelle consists of five three-lined stanzas (tercets) and a final quatrain. The first and the third line of the first stanza are alternated in the last lines of the other stanzas, and together form the final couplet in the quattrain. The second line of the other stanzas rhyme with the second line of the first.
This sounds more difficult than it is...

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

[...]

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

So this poem is a perfect, flawless villanelle. The real accomplishment lies in the fact that it's tone is so immensely poignant - manage to force the poem into a strict formal corset like that and still strike a serious note rather than a satirical one.
It's also very clever that the lines "do not go gentle..." and "rage, rage..." in the first stanza are urging imperatives and in the other, their grammatical role is entirely different.
Note also the contrast between "good night" and the word "gentle" in the first line, and "Rage, rage" (made all the stronger through repetition) and "dying" in the second.

Like I said I agree with most of what True Moose wrote about the content of the different stanzas.
There is a kind of volta in the last stanza - from talking about dying in general, Thomas suddenly switches to a personal tone : And YOU, my FATHER.
Well a quick rehash of the other ones even though I'll most likely repeat what's been said already.

Wise men know that in the end death is inevitable, right even, but their words have forked no lightning - they have not left an impression and therefore they do not gently accept death.

Similarly, the actions of the good men have had too little effect on the world. Imagining how these actions could have made a difference, they rage against their uncoming death. "the last wave" is played out in the "green bay of the next line". Note how all stanzas have a natural phenomenon in the middle line - maybe to further emphasise that death is a part of nature, is natural, underlining our powerlessness against it as we are powerless against natural phenomena.

Oh I just noticed a tiny omission in the next stanza - it should be "grieved IT on its way"

The blinding sight of the grave men reminds me a little of the blind seer Tiresias from Greek mythology... not sure how far this can be taken though...

There's a duality in what Thomas is saying - he calls death "that good night", yet he cannot accept his father going into it willingly, meekly - he should be dragged kicking and screaming, raging. Another opposite pair is curse, bless. It seems like he's forcing his father to react, in any way, doesn't matter if he curses or blesses, as long as he does not go gently... The word fierce is another strong term that seems meant to whip his father into rage and out of acceptance.

On the Internet (or the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia) you can find soundbites of Dylan Thomas reading his own work, including this poem. Very impressive and will definitely add to your understanding of it. [img]smile.gif[/img]
This will help you write about the aural effects of the poem as well.
A short note on that - like I said usually this type of repetitive rhyme will sound trite or funny (she took my hand, led me to the promised land, from the moment that we met I could not forget bla bla bla) but in this case, the rhymes create a poignant, emphatic tone.
Oh, another thing - try to pay some attention to the spondees in this poem. A spondee is a foot that has two stressed syllables in a row... don't know if you ever learned how to scansion - make a schematic representation of a poem's feet and meter... There's iambic (unstressed stressed), anapestic (two unstressed, stressed), trochaic (stressed unstressed) and dactylic (stressed two unstressed). their END know DARK is RIGHT is an example of iambs.
Spondees cause a break in the poems rhythm and therefore can draw extra attention to a word and create extra emphasis. "Rage, rage" and "curse, bless" are the most obvious ones but there are more.
The only way to find out is to read out loud

Oh, one last thing Moni - John Cale did a VERY good musical version of this poem, it is really quite astounding. You can tell he's listened to Thomas reading it aloud. I'd really recommend you listen to it if you can find it [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hope that wasn't too rambly and confusing....

[ 10-15-2002, 06:20 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

[Melusine]

Actually Moni, I have the soundbite of Thomas reading this poem on my PC - I could send it to you if you like...
Unfortunately I haven't got the John Cale song so I really hope you can find that yourself. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Oh Melusine!

I Love You!

I am both grateful and freaked out all at once LOL!
I woke up as brain-dead as I went to sleep and sick on top of it. I am assuming being ill is why I am having such a hard time thinking. (Congested head lol) Well I do only have one class and it is hours away so hopefully I can remedy myself enough to go in and take notes.
The freaky part about seeing your posts here is that last night as I was reading the poem and deciding that it would be the one I was going to choose "something told me" that [/i]you[/i] would love it.
Then, a while later while typing it out here, you were so prominent in my thoughts it was almost giving me chills because you weren't even on the board!
It was as if Thomas himself were looking over my shoulder and anticipating your reading it (I got chills again just now LOL) Oh it was/is so kind of creepy and really neat all at once!

I would love to actualy hear Thomas himself reading it! You are so very kind to offer to send it to me! I haven't checked my e-mail in a few days so there might be some clutter in my lycos account but sending it to LastTruePrincess@aol.com will insure it makes it through to me.

I will definitely get a search going to find Cale's aduio version and Thank You Thank You Thank You!

Oh Bless You Bless You Bless You! You just made my crawling out of bed today worth everything!

*BIGHUGS*
Moni

[Melusine]

[img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

No problem Moni - and what a coincidence!! I may have posted this poem on IW before in one of the few poetry threads we had. [img]smile.gif[/img]
I sent it to your lycos account earlier today but I take it your inbox was full - will send to the other account right now.
Oh and I just listened to the John Cale version (I only have it on cassette unfortunately) - it is really amazing.

I was thinking/hoping I had seen it in a post of yours some time back LOL!
Those "confirmation chills" just made it all that much stranger though!
Thank you so much for the send! It is really amazing, as you said!
My professor is a collector of readings so if this one is not in his collection, I can give it to him on a disk to record onto his CD's. He'll love it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I could not find it by John Cale anywhere but I would put money on KHaN's dad having it lol, that man has everything under the sun that was ever put to music lol. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thank you again! You're the greatest. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I did manage to get my thesis written and out of the way. Tomorrow he will critique it for me and suggest any changes he thinks are necessary before grading it with the final paper.
So, I guess it is off to study my Math and read through my Biology/Nutrition study guide again while there is still time left in the evening to do so.

Thank you again, so very much!

Moni