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Difficulty: MediumAnalysis of Prescribed Non-African Poems

Complete the literary analysis of Dylan Thomas's prescribed non-African poem by filling in the missing terms.

Answer:Dylan Thomas's poem 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' is composed in the fixed poetic form of a nineteen-line 【villanelle】, featuring two repeating refrains across six stanzas. Furthermore, the recurring phrase 'that good night' functions as a central 【metaphor】 representing death.

Answer

The first blank is 'villanelle' and the second blank is 'metaphor' (or 'euphemism').
Dylan Thomas's 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' is a classic example of a villanelle, a nineteen-line form consisting of five tercets and one quatrain with two recurring refrains. The phrase 'that good night' serves as a metaphor comparing the arrival of night to human death.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the structural poetic form of Dylan Thomas's poem 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'.
The poem consists of nineteen lines divided into five tercets and a concluding quatrain with a strict refrain pattern, which defines a villanelle.
Recognizing fixed poetic forms is essential for structural analysis of prescribed non-African poetry.
2
Analyze the figurative device used in the phrase 'that good night'.
The phrase directly equates darkness/night with death without using comparative words like 'as' or 'like', making it a metaphor.
Identifying tropes and figurative language clarifies the poem's central theme of mortality.

Key Concept

Poetic Structure and Metaphorical Language in Prescribed Non-African Poetry
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Analysis of Prescribed Non-African Poems

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