Quote:
Originally posted by Golias:
Though I have never been a devotee of Dylan Thomas, I find I have been doing him a great injustice by my criticism of his villanelle "Do Not Go Gentle...etc."
At http://www.alsopreview.com/gaz/gaz_noted there is recorded a debate between R. J. McCaffrey and myself, which took place several years ago, concerning the third stanza of this poem and whether or not it contains a serious defect which makes it wrong to call it, as some have done, a flawless English-language villanelle. The third stanza, as you may remember goes:
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay
do not go gentle into that good night.
My argument was that the central metaphor of this stanza was incomprehensible. To what are the frail deeds being compared? What image are we supposed to see? Are the deeds frail boats, or perhaps skinny dolphins dancing on their tails? I long maintained, successfully in such discussions on the point as I entered, that the line and the metaphor were a muddled serving only to provide the required rhyme and to make possible Thomas' parody of part two of Marvell's famous double ionic: "To a green thought in a green shade."
Quite suddenly I have received a flash of understanding about this metaphor, which makes me wonder how I ever managed to get an A in a college poetry analysis class. I now see that Dylan probably intended the frail deeds to be represented by the waves themselves: waves that might indeed have danced in a green bay representing a warmer, more appreciative place or set of beneficiaries. The "last wave by" would then mean "the final deed accomplished."
How does this interpretation strike you folks? I now think the metaphor quite a good one and humbly withdraw my assertion that "Do not Go Gentle..." is more or less ruined by S3L2.
It is probably unnecessary to post the entire villanelle here as it was once voted the most admired poem in the language by respondents to a BBC survey of 50,000 listeners.
Janet...you were right and I was wrong...but could you have told me why and how?
Wiley Clements (Golias)
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Dear Wiley,
here it is:
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.
Wild men who caught and sang 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 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.
------
I don't know whether I ever said that that was the meaning but yes, indeed, it is so. I find this poem so heartbreakingly true that I am unable to understand why anybody should ever want to attack it. As I wait impatiently to move house to travel away from my friends into the unknown, I have flashes of :
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
You are permitted more than one accidental oversight Wiley since your own wonderful poems are full of wisdom and subtle innuendo and profound understanding. All of us have blind spots when things are too near to one or other of our own obsessions.
When the multitudes applaud it isn't always just a response to
sieg heil.
It can be the recognition of a Beethoven or a Mark Twain, or a "Do not go gentle".
It is typically gracious and honest of you to post this message.
Best,
Janet