"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas, at the age of 16, left school to pursue being a writer and a reporter. he died at the age of 39 on November 9, 1953.

Do not go gentle into that good night

Dylan Thomas

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.

This nineteen line poem has two rhymes that repeat throughout it, five tercets and one quatrain. The first and third lines of the first quatrain repeat throughout the poem. The second line in each tercet and in the one quatrain rhyme throughout the poem, while the first and third (and in the one quatrain, the last two lines) rhyme. There is only a rhyme scheme of aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa, so only two rhymes. “Do not go gentle into that good night,” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” repeat over other at the end of the lines, until the one quatrain, where both are said, it is the refrain. “Do not go gentle into that good night,” is the start of the poem. Because of this rhyme scheme, repetition, and structure of the poem, this is called a villanelle. This poem is broken up into stages where it is describing the stages of life. While analyzing the poem, the “Wise men,” “Good men,” “wild men,” “Grave men,” is talking about everyone and how all of our days will end. Each of the five tercets are a stage of life, and the one quatrain at the end is defining that everyone has to face death in the end. The way the poem is structured and frame is to emphasis the stages of life and the repetition is to show how it all comes together in the end for everyone. 

"Driving Glove" by Claudia Emerson

Claudia Emerson was born January 13, 1957. She has honors including Pulitzer Prize nominations and won it for Late Wife (2005).

Driving Glove
by Claudia Emerson
I was unloading groceries from the trunk
of what had been her car, when the glove floated
up from underneath the shifting junk-
a crippled umbrella, the jack, ragged
maps. I knew it was not one of yours,
this more delicate, soft, made from hide
of a kid or lamb.It still remembered
her hand, the creases where her fingers


had bent to hold the wheel, the turn
of her palm, smaller than mine. There was
nothing else to do but return it -
let it drift, sink, slow as a leaf through water
to rest on the bottom where I have not
forgotten it remains - persistent in its loss."

This short quaint poem of two stanzas changes the tone from a once distance memory about a lady to a full flood of the memory where as the speaker must take a moment to catch her breath. While unpacking groceries from the car, a driving glove comes up from "the shifting junk." It is at a point where the speaker is trying to remember back to a time when a woman was still alive. It is not "one of yours, thus more delicate, soft, made from the hide of a kid or lamb,” may refer to it that it is not her father’s glove, but maybe her mother’s. The break after the speaker describes the woman's hand shifts the tone. This drop off in the middle of the sentence suggests that the speaker has had the full memory of a tragedy that had happened, but is not described. The speaker needs to take a breath. A new heart reaching memory floods in and the tone shifts from a calm, melancholy tone into an emotional, mournful whirl. The mournful speaker does not want the memory to be lost. It is placed back where it is found, "return it-let it drift, sink, slow as a leaf through water to rest on the bottom." This memory will not be forgotten, even as the inference of the speaker leaving the car and glove behind to leave the woman's touch where it is remembered most.