Graded Assignment - Type-In s2

English | Assignment | Do Not Go Gentle (a) Assignment Do Not Go Gentle

You will now work through Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” stanza by stanza, answering questions as you go.

First Stanza (b) What image in the words “burn and rave” suggest? Why should someone “burn and rave at close of day?”

Burn and rave suggest a very passionate and strong feeling. Someone should burn and rave at close of day to hug onto life as much as they can and make the most of it even at their last breath.

(c) The word rage can mean “anger,” but it can also mean “passion”—an outpouring of feeling. How might Thomas have been using both meanings in the poem?

Thomas might’ve meant to have a passionate anger against death.

Second Stanza (d) Though the wise men might “know” that it is time to die, the speaker says that they still fight death because “their words had forked no lightning.” What does this mean?

They still fight death because “their words had forked no lightning.” means that they don’t accept death and fade away since they might have not achieved everything they wanted to yet. To fork lightning means to split it, and in order to spilt the charge you would need a rod to make the lightning to hit different things. Since the wise men’s words had “forked no lightning” it means that they didn’t put an enough impact in the word to “fork lightning,”

What images do you see in this stanza?

It brings in a new mood to the poem than just the dark/light metaphors we have been seeing. It also gives a sense of shock, and suggests that life isn’t just warmth from the sun but more liked getting zapped by lightning.

Third Stanza (e) These good people cry “how bright their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay.” What does this mean?

This talks about the men’s regrets of what they didn’t do and their thoughts of “what could’ve been.” Or, to use the metaphor in the poem, as their wave hits the rocks, the men cry how beautifully that wave could have danced in the green bay if it didn’t hit the rocks.

What imagery do you see in this stanza?

I see waves rolling into a bay. The wave is like a person’s ‘soul’, while the bay is life since the green suggests that there is life in the bay like algae or seaweed. The breaking of the wave is death, but the dancing waters illustrates the deeds of the men making an impact.

© 2016 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 2 Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited. English | Assignment | Do Not Go Gentle Fourth Stanza (f) How might these people have “sang the sun in flight” and then “grieved” it?

The sun is like the glory of life, and the “flight” is the journey in life. But then they “grieved it,” because the sun rise is followed by a sun set, just as life is always followed by death.

(g) What imagery do you see in this stanza?

When someone looks like they’re about die, like I seen in movies, a loved one will advise the dying one to, “not go into the light,” the light representing death this time around. Here I just see a man flying into the sun.

Fifth Stanza (h) What images do you see in stanza 5?

I see a man that is on a bed that is dying at that moment but with passion and life into the man’s eyes.

Sixth Stanza (i) Why do all these men not go gently into death?

All these men do not go gently into death because they are “rebelling” against it by grasping on the life they have left instead of just giving into death.

(j) What role do light and darkness play in the poem?

When you think of light, you think of goodness and life. When you think of darkness, you think negative, and death. So here in this stanza, the light plays the role of life, and the darkness plays the role of death.