Preparation for Midterm “When I Have Fears” by John Keats “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

Expectations: Thesis should ANSWER THE QUESTION asked and make a strong claim about both poems. Body paragraphs should have strong support and analysis (should quote each poem at least 1 time per body paragraph). Quotes should be relevant, correctly cited, and well explained.

Why is Keats so obsessed with mortality? This poem is informed by anxiety about death and lost potential. Keats had trained to be a doctor, but decided to make his way writing poetry instead, so he was intimately familiar with the frailty of the human body. Keats wrote “When I Have Fears,” (p. 707) in a letter to a friend in January of His mother had died of TB (which in his time was called “consumption”) in 1810, and it would eventually kill John Keats as well (he was only 25 when he died in 1821). His brother Tom also died of the TB in December of 1818, and Keats nursed him through much of his illness (possibly contracting TB himself at this time, though no one is sure).

Two Portraits of John Keats By William Hilton, c By Charles Armitage Brown, 1819 Both images © National Portrait Gallery, London

“When I Have Fears” and Sonnet Form “When I Have Fears” is a sonnet. Remember, sonnets have a problem, a turn and a resolution. Keats problem… he fears he’s going to die young, and he’s not going to get all of his ideas written down. Also, he worries that he’s never going to fall in love, and any love that he experiences will be fleeting. Lines 1-12 discuss this problem in detail.

Some important images/metaphors in the “problem” section: In the first four lines of the poem, Keats compares the process of writing to an agricultural harvest. Glean (line 2): to make a second pass over a field that has been harvested to get all the crops that the first harvesters left behind. Notice that the farming metaphor continues on lines 3-4, where the books are like barns for the “crop” – his writing.

Some important images/metaphors in the “problem” section: “Romance” in line 6 isn’t romantic love in the 21 st century sense, but rather a grand story of adventure. (Keats either means that he desires to WRITE this story, or that he desires to EXPERIENCE it. Either interpretation makes sense.) Notice nature as a source of inspiration here. It’s “the night’s starred face” (line 5) that inspires Keats’ vision of “high romance.” In line 9, though, Keats is definitely talking about romantic love. “Faery” in line 11 doesn’t mean cute little Disney pixies. It’s something much more powerful, a bit overwhelming in their terrible beauty. (The Victorians made fairies cute. Before that, they were beautiful, yes, but also terrifying.)

The Turn The TURN comes in the middle of line 12. Notice that he goes out “to the shore of the wide world” in order to get some perspective. Notice the change in tone after the turn. The love and fame that were so important to him before have become nothing.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” p Thomas writes this poem about the impending death of his father. (I know that Thomas died soon after the publication of this poem, but unlike Keats, it was a much more sudden illness. Dylan Thomas doesn’t know he’s sick when he writes this.)

Two photographs of Dylan Thomas

Form of “Do Not Go Gentle” This poem is follows a form called a villanelle, which has very specific requirements about length, rhyme scheme, etc. Villanelles have five stanzas of three lines each that ALL have the same rhyme scheme of ABA (notice that there are only two end rhymes in the whole poem… the rhymes for “night” or “day”). The last stanza of a villanelle, bringing it up to 19 lines, has 4 lines, and has the rhyme scheme AABB. Villanelles also call for the repetition of the 1 st and 3 rd line of the first stanza at specific places in the poem.

Examples of “Good Deaths” Thomas offers as examples several different kinds of men who were unwilling, for various reasons, to “go gentle into that good night.” Wise men – second stanza Good men – third stanza Wild men – fourth stanza (for some reason our book leaves out the space between lines 9 and 10) Grave men – fifth stanza Each of these types of men has a reason to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

The Final Stanza In the final stanza, Thomas addresses his father directly. Notice how he brings two opposites, curses and blessings, into the same line, and doesn’t seem to make much distinction between them. The last two lines (as required by the villanelle form) are a final repetition of the two lines that have been repeated throughout the poem. (They are called the “refrain.”)