Playing Literature Like Music: (4) Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle..."

Do not go gentle into that good night

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.

Wise men who caught and sung the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that 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.

              Dylan Thomas is the Jimi Hendrix, Luciano Pavarotti, Beethoven of poetry. Let’s listen to aria he makes of his poem to his father:

            But even if we didn’t have the benefit of this recording, the words, themselves, sing.  If someone did not know English, they would still physically get the tenor and emotion of his poem.  I have been relishing this poem in classes for over thirty years, and am still discovering layers of meaning.  There are portions of the poems which I can’t explain to myself—all to the best.

            “Do Not Go Gentle…” is a villanelle—Poetry by the Numbers: (2) 3- and 4- Line Stanzas with two recurring lines: the first and the third.  Already we have a dirge like, keening established rhythm—coming back and back to the same thought, obsessively, as if that might change the situation.  The recurring lines also underscore the plaintive tone of the son pleading the father to fight death.  The long string of single syllables in line one—gentled only by the two-syllable gentle and into, like catches in the throat—pounds, pounds, pounds at the father, like a physician pounding at the chest of a patient to jolt the heart back to beating.  But rhythm is not all that drives meaning in this poem.

In a previous post, Nims's Sound Frequencies, we explored the energies of vowel sounds. You might want to (re)read it now. Here is the Nims’ chart:

Let’s hold up the line to the light of sound frequencies:

Do not go gentle into that good night.

We start with the lowest of the low frequency, and therefore least energetic vowel sound—oo. Dad is almost off the radar—flat-lining.  The narrator finds him there, and from there zigs up and down the scale to lift the line to the lowest high-frequency night.

                  Do^L  not^M  go^L  gen^Mtle^M in^M to^L that^M good^L night^H.

Schematically, the line trills as this:

                                                              night                                                                      in

           gen

                                        that

                      tle
not

                                                 good

                                       go

                 Do                                              to

Trace your finger from syllable to syllable to feel the tug against gravity—graveness, grave—as the vowel frequencies struggle to rise to third from the top—just over the middle line, not to the top two frequencies of bay and bee.  Exhausting.  As it is exhausting to try to revive a dying man.  This line recurs four times in the poem.

            Here’s the second line—an insistent pounding of single syllables throughout:

              Old^L age^H should^L burn^M and^M rave^H at^M close^L of^M day^H;

There’s been a rise in momentum, as the penultimate lowest frequency leaps to the penultimate highest:

                        age                                      rave                            day

                                                          and               at

                                               burn

                                                                                               of

                                 should

              Old                                                             close

Although we’re not at the bottom oo as we are in the first line—we have risen one frequency with age, rave, day—although not to the top ee.

            Now here’s the other recurring line:

              Rage^H, rage^H a^M gainst^M the^M dy^H ing^M of^M the^M light^H.

We start and end with the penultimate highest energy vowels—some wallowing in the middle in the middle—but no low frequency vowels drag down this important line that will end the poem with resounding assertion.

              Rage     rage

                                                                  dy                             light

                                                                         ing

                                            gainst

                                         a                the                     of   the

            The whole poem sings with these variations of sound frequencies that embody the struggle of the son to rouse his father to die like a soldier in battle.

            Be awake to the dance of sound frequencies of vowels.  Notice the patterns and use them to enrich your interpretations.  When writing poetry, craft them for sound frequency variations that create effects that embody your current intent.  Know, though, that the sounds will take over intuitively if the poem is alive.  Follow and support their music.

© Susanna Rich, 2020

Works Cited:

Sound Frequency Chart: Nims, John Frederick, and David Mason.  Western Wind. 5^th ed. New York: McGraw, 2000.

Texts:

Nims, John Frederick, and David Mason.  Western Wind. 5^th ed. New York: McGraw, 2000.

Because I Can Teach:

Playing Literature Like Music (1) Introduction

 https://becauseicanteach.blogspot.com/2018/10/playing-literature-like-music.html

Playing Literature Like Music (2) Sound Frequencies

https://becauseicanteach.blogspot.com/2020/03/playing-literature-like-music-2-sound.html