Seminar Tasks: Week 5 Good night portfolio

 

"Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas 750

Do not go gentle into that good night,      

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;    you should flare out with the last of life

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.    fight against death with your dying breath

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,   accept inevitability. understand it.
Because their words had forked no lightning they   words arent as powerful as they seem
Do not go gentle into that good night.      against death, the blabber of tongues cannot win

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright         against death, good deeds are futile   Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.      ah but still, don't give up.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,      against death, bravado and flaring of life
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,        realises not the imminent disaster that strikes
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight.  flashing of memories are seen clearly
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,   against death, fight the blindness before
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.              everything goes dark for the last time.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,      there at the top ready to take the plunge
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.   please make the last effort, no matter
Do not go gentle into that good night.         what emotion you may feel, feel it. Fight.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

The poem focuses on the narrator's woes against the imminent death of his father. He segways into this after following the train of thought highlighting four kinds of men: wise men; good men, wild men and grave men, which illustrates a common streak they have in the stanzas, by pointing out how all of them have thoughts that reflect on life itself the moment before they die. The narrator calls these people to rage against death, which is represented as a "good night" of slumber that lasts for eternity.

In "Do not go gentle into that good night," enjambment happens in about half the stanzas. One good example of enjambment and how it works comes in stanza five, where Thomas writes, "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay." In these lines, enjambment creates drama and allows Thomas to play with words a little bit. In the first line, the grave men can see with "blinding sight," meaning they can look back on their lives and see it with extreme clarity.

But instead of telling us what the men see, Thomas twists things in the next line. When Thomas says "blind eyes," he means literal blindness. In old age, people often lose their eyesight, but it doesn't mean they can't see their past clearly in their own memories. Their memories "blaze" in their blind eyes; in other words, the joy of a life well lived reflects in their face, despite their age. In this instance, enjambment creates drama and lets Thomas a) put an unexpected twist into his poem, and b) reflect the rush of excitement and joy the "grave men" feel in the structure of his poem.

More importantly, each instance of enjambment in "Do not go gentle into that good night" gives the poem a sense of forward motion. Even though the speaker wants to stop time—and as a result, stop death—both time and the poem march toward an inevitable conclusion.

Challenging Death. rage, meting out every last bit of strength in defiance

When Thomas says "close of day," he's referencing death. But he also says that people should "burn" against it—and as we all know, things that are burning produce light!

the juxtaposition of life and death helps readers see that life is powerful and full of energy.  Thomas tells readers they should not accept death passively, but instead should fight (or "rage") against it ("the dying of the light").

But why is this, exactly? Why fight against death instead of slipping away peacefully?

For Thomas, the best way is to face death with strength and power, like the "wild" heroes of old. In his poem, Thomas argues that this allows dying people to embrace the fiery energy of life one last time, and in many ways, serves as a small way to triumph something they have no control over in the end. Put another way: if you can't avoid dying, it's better to go down fighting than to not fight at all!

It's important to note that although Thomas tells readers to struggle against death, this isn't a poem about triumphing over death. The end result of fighting death isn't victory. The people in the poem don't cheat death in order to live another day. The truth is that the people Thomas mentions are dying—and they will die no matter what.

Thus, "Do not go gentle into that good night" focuses on a person's literal final choice: not whether or not to die, but how they will face the inevitable.

time and regret:  enjambment, unstoppable nullification of memories and life.
rage. needs to fight death before going because there are plenty left unsolved
Thomas includes the idea of regret in his poem to show readers how short life truly is. When we are young, we have grand plans for everything we want to do, and we feel like we have all the time in the world to accomplish our goals. But Thomas argues that time goes by quickly. Too often, we "grieve" time "on its way," which is Thomas' way of saying that people often want for time to move faster. But if we do that, we miss out on the opportunities of life. Instead, Thomas is telling readers in a roundabout way that it's important to seize the day. Time is short and death waits for us all, so Thomas reminds readers to embrace life rather than let it pass them by.

1953 in the form of a villanelle. 

The Waking

BY THEODORE ROETHKE

The topic of waking and sleeping or, more specifically, the cycle of life and death, is enhanced by the rhythmic movement of the poem’s outer form. Additionally, each stanzas is linked by a combination of two refrains that declare, “I sleep to wake and take my waking slow” (1, 6, 12, 18), and I “learn by going where I have to go” (3, 9, 15, 19). The repetition of these two lines provides a distinct rhythm that skillfully marks the passing of time. What is inferred by these two lines, and what is the significance of their repeated use by the speaker? The first of several paradoxes in “The Waking,” the refrain, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” seems to express the existence of an altered state of consciousness during sleep, and in life’s limited time frame, the speaker decides to make the most of the journey.

The great English writer Samuel Johnson says, “If a man wants to go north, he is more likely to get there by walking south than by standing still.”

Published in 1953, 'The Waking' is a villanelle, a poem built on repeating two lines that would, in theory, introduce layerings with each resonance. As Marquess (2015) said, we might think of it as a highly formal dance, in which these two partners step forward and back again and again, one of them sealing each tercet, until they’re united in the final quatrain. 'The Waking' itself justifies this particular form of poetry by skilfully imbuing the cycle of time and enlightenment into the rhythmic cycle of "waking" and "sleeping". Understandably, this theme of change, or more specifically, self-discovery is integrated into the poem as Roethke accepts life as it is while telling us how to live it to the fullest.

Change is an inevitable aspect of life As and while life exists,the poet asserts he aspires to take his ‘waking slow’: he endeavours to live life to the fullest. He renders Life itself as his fate, his ultimate, as it does not offer him much to dread. His journey of life, is the greatest experience to him, and he learns by going wherever he has to go to. Rukhaya (2014)

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.   

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.   

I learn by going where I have to go. 

    I have to stop being stagnant water

contradictory logic-defying statement. Here is someone awake yet asleep, a somewhat confused state to be in. If this anonymous speaker has his eyes open he still feels as if he's asleep; or does he wake with eyes closed and take all morning, all day, all of his life to fully wake up?
Is there a suggestion of enlightenment as the speaker, now consciously awake, comes to realize that there is nothing to be afraid of. Note the alliterative flourish...feel...fate...fear. Destiny is more tangible; there's a refreshed outlook on life, a new determination. The speaker clearly has strong feelings and is emotionally certain of what the future holds. Learning will come naturally if he 'goes with the flow.' This could be an educational learning, as in someone going off to university for example, or it could be that the speaker learns about himself because he's following his heart.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?   

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

We're not machines. We articulate feelings, end of story. Perhaps we already know too much, or maybe we'll never get to know exactly just how the psychology of being works.
The speaker is listening with a big fat smile across his face as his essence dances. Is this a solo dance? Or one involving the self? The reader is challenged to fathom this line out - how deep is our existence, the knowledge that we exist fully in the dance of life?
The opening line is repeated as if to emphasise the idea of cherishing each and every moment we're alive.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?  

God bless the Ground!   I shall walk softly there,   

And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?   

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Tree of Life, or a Family Tree. Again that verb take enters the fray. Light takes the Tree, meaning that the Tree experiences light in a certain way, a unique way, which the human mind cannot ever fully grasp. Science may be able to rationalise, deduce and reduce - you know, photosynthesis and all that - but the scientist cannot ever fully feel what it is to be that Tree created from light. Even a worm can ascend to the heights. Evolution in action or some kind of spiritual hierarchy at work? In this context ignorance is truly bliss, especially for the speaker who is still in the process of learning, from the worm, from the light, from the Tree, from the Ground up.

Great Nature has another thing to do   

To you and me; so take the lively air,   

And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
So the speaker is gradually waking up by always learning, going softly to wherever it is he has to go (perhaps deep inside himself). Nature will eventually catch up with him (and you, the reader, or an unnamed partner?), As to what this act of Nature is, well, the reader is again challenged. The language suggests that the speaker has a close partner, a lover, a wife, a husband, a friend - so this natural act could be anything from death to conception. The repeat of take implies experience, so the speaker is encouraging a partner (lovely) to live and also to learn. This positive togetherness has taken four stanzas to develop.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.   

What falls away is always. And is near.   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.   

I learn by going where I have to go.
What falls away is gone forever - people, things, love, life, memory, time, sense - and these losses happen all the time to anybody, anywhere. They are close by, the line is thin, fate fickle.

The Waking is positively life affirming, revealing that it is alright to experience existential vulnerability by living life one step at a time.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. As humans, we are different from the plants and animals that regulate oxygen and maintain balance in the food web. We are different compared to the inanimate household items that exist to serve us. We hold the responsibility to live by our choices as we do not have prescribed purposes to fulfil. In a sense, we wake because we have the capacity to transcend the eternal sleep of non-living beings. Unfortunately, the knowledge of knowing that doesn't make waking up any easier. For some, it can be a tedious journey, if they manage to start the journey at all. For others, it would be a difficult process as life's layers of uncertainty becomes dangerous chasms that threaten to swallow them up.  I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. Once we accept the fate of not knowing the unknown, we will be at peace and actually make progress uncovering life along the way without fear. 

I learn by going where I have to go. The span of our consciousness is finite. Ready or not, our life-force ticks and dwindles with time, and we all have to start with nothing, which is why we learn where we need to go by going. Only then can we truly get the ball of learning rolling. I hear my being dance from ear to ear. We feel the way to comprehend our thoughts of living "we think by feeling, what is there to know?". As beings of emotion, we could live out our fear that everything we know and love is reducible to the acts of chemicals stripping everything of intrinsic value, or we could overcome the chemicals in our brains telling us that they are chemicals, because it is plausible that all knowledge is based on the fact that which we cannot prove.

The reader is challenged to fathom this line out - how deep is our existence, the knowledge that we exist fully in the dance of life?

William Marquess A walk around The Waking Saint Michael’s College Magazine’s Summer 2015 issue

A Study Guide for Theodore Roethke's "The Waking"By Gale, (2017) Cengage Learning

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Reflection.
1 Scan, critically picking the main points and get the grasp of the construct
2 Reading Slowly and absorbing its deeper meaning, letting the text wash over and seep into your mind.
3 Tear the construct apart until you pluck out its bare bones and crunch on it
Then check the analysis of the text, context and lexical importance.

Slow reading in a group. Different perspectives, different tones, different ideas.
Cultivating different variations in its interpretation and garnering a clearer look into the text. Embrace the different pacings and find meaning.

Textual analysis forces an investment of thought in the text. Allows a lot more growth and learning when compared to just reading and introspecting. The process of analysis clears muddled and messy thought to erect a proper stance for/against the text.

The psycho-emotional state is provoked and the invasion of thought from the study of the text imbues a certain layering of experience. Academically, this induces a healthy muscle growth in the region of creativity and critical thinking, as well as honing the analytical process by doing honest practice.