Dylan_Thomas

Dylan Thomas Subject: Dylan Thomas’ father had been a robust, militant man most of his life, and when in his eighties, he became blind and weak, his son was disturbed seeing his father become “soft” or “gentle.” In the poem Thomas is rousing his father to continue being the fierce man he had previously been. Literary devices: The form on the poem is a villanelle, with a rhyme scheme alternating “night” and “day.” “Good night” is a metaphor and a pun. “Dying of the light” is a metaphor. “Old age should burn and rave” in line two is a combination of metonymy and personification. “Close of day” is a metaphor. “Burn” in that same line is used metaphorically, as is “dark” in line four. In line five “their words had forked no lightning” is metaphorical. Line eight “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay” employs personification and metaphor. Line ten “Wild men who sang the sun in flight” is exaggeration and metaphor. Line 11 “they grieved it on its way” is also exaggeration and metaphor. Line 13 “Grave” is a pun; “blinding sight” is an oxymoron. Line 14 “Blind eyes line, rage, death, father, stanza, metaphor, men, gentle, night, light, good, go, form, dying, against, man, life, easily, wild, sun, subject, poem, might, grave, even, day, command, been, wise, whose, villanelle, thomas, stanzas, should, pun