Dylan Thomas uses death as a motif in all four poems revealing the family member
ID: 122971 • Letter: D
Question
Dylan Thomas uses death as a motif in all four poems revealing the family member’s unique struggle in a patient’s battle with terminal illness. After examining each of the four poems, discuss in 250 words or more how exploring symbolism and imagery presented in the work of Dylan Thomas might encourage or otherwise facilitate communication between the caregiver and the patient.
Too proud to die; broken and blind he died
The darkest way, and did not turn away,
A cold kind man brave in his narrow pride
On that darkest day. Oh, forever may
He lie lightly, at last, on the last, crossed
Hill, under the grass, in love, and there grow
Young among the long flocks, and never lie lost
Or still all the numberless days of his death, though
Above all he longed for his mother’s breast
Which was rest and dust, and in the kind ground
The darkest justice of death, blind and unblessed.
Let him find no rest but be fathered and found,
I prayed in the crouching room, by his blind bed,
In the muted house, one minute before
Noon, and night, and light. The rivers of the dead
Veined his poor hand I held, and I saw
Through his unseeing eyes to the roots of the sea.
(An old tormented man three-quarters blind,
I am not too proud to cry that He and he
Will never never go out of my mind.
All his bones crying, and poor in all but pain,
Being innocent, he dreaded that he died
Hating his God, but what he was was plain:
An old kind man brave in his burning pride.
The sticks of the house were his; his books he owned.
Even as a baby he had never cried;
Nor did he now, save to his secret wound.
Out of his eyes I saw the last light glide.
Here among the light of the lording sky
An old blind man is with me where I go
Walking in the meadows of his son’s eye
On whom a world of ills came down like snow.
He cried as he died, fearing at last the spheres’
Last sound, the world going out without a breath:
Too proud to cry, too frail to check the tears,
And caught between two nights, blindness and death.
O deepest wound of all that he should die
On that darkest day. Oh, he could hide
The tears out of his eyes, too proud to cry.
Until I die he will not leave my side.)
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
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion
Explanation / Answer
Death is a frequent theme in Dylan Thomas’ poetry. Thomas employs different interesting and unorthodox images to present various aspects of death.
In the poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, he emphasizes resistance towards death as he repeats this appeal in the last line in every stanza. In this Thomas is asking his father through pleading words to fight against the darkness that is taking over and leading him into the afterlife.
Initially, Thomas uses images of fury and fighting in the lines "do not go gentle", "good night" and "dying of the light" to emphasize the resistance towards death. With these images, Thomas conveys death as the end and where darkness prevails. He takes his stand within concrete, particular existence. He places birth and death at the poles of his vision. Excessive images of anger and rage towards death exemplify the passion Thomas feels for life.
Secondly, Thomas brings into action images of "burn" and "rave at close of day" to show and emphasize the resistance towards death. In addition, Thomas uses images of " wise men" and " grave men to tell his dying father that all men either smart or ignorant need to fight against death.
In the poem “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” each of the intervening lines and images is simply another way of saying that the life force is immortal and that people’s bodies may die but their spirits live on in the world. In the first stanza, the Thomas conveys that in death, all are one. Race and skin color no longer have any meaning when a person dies. The dead body reunites with nature and there’s no discrimination in death.
The poem, Elegy, focuses around the death of his father. His father was also blind. We can tell by the first line of the poem as it states broken and blind he died and this relates to the second line the darkest way as being blind you can’t see anything. So he did die the darkest possible way. His father was in fact an atheist suggests that he did not give into religion him.
From all these four poems we can understand the level of communication between caregivers and patients about illness and death, indicating substantial communication difficulties between them.
Caregivers often experienced substantial difficulties in communicating with their loved ones about the illness and death, and avoided discussing these issues with them. Caregivers’ avoidance probably stems from their desire to protect the patient and to prevent any discomfort (protective buffering), as well as from their desire to protect themselves from their own fear of disease and death. Caregivers’ emotional exhaustion, depression, and self-efficacy, as well as the duration of caregiving, emerged as significant predictors of caregivers’ level of communication with patients.
Talking with the patient about his or her illness and impending death is a difficult task that requires substantial emotional strength. This is especially true for caregivers whose initial fear of terminal diseases and death is high. The higher caregiver's level of self-efficacy, the more they can communicate with their patients about the illness and death. Caregiving is a multidimensional task that involves much tension and requires energy and emotional resources, especially in the first phase of the illness, when the diagnosis is revealed to the patient and family. At this stage of the illness the patient and the caregivers are probably stunned and reluctant to communicate about the illness or death.
As time passes and the health condition of the patient deteriorates, there is a cognitive and emotional adaptation of caregivers to the new situation and a recognition that the patient will not survive is gradually developed. It is possible that this adaptation and recognition enable caregivers to communicate more with the patient about his or her illness and impending death. Another explanation is that time may have increased caregivers’ self-efficacy as they learned that they can cope with the difficult situation.
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