The repetition of the first and third lines of the poem impress the reader with the speaker's relative desperation that his father fight against death (we learn the narrator of the poem is speaking to his or her father in line 16). It sounds as though the speaker is trying to persuade his or her father that, although continuing to live might be painful or difficult, resisting death is the best thing, the right thing, to do. The speaker repeats these lines in the context of describing all different kinds of men—wise men, good men, wild men, and serious men (or men who are very near death, since "Grave" has two potential meanings here)—and all the different reasons that they choose to stay in "the light." This seems to be an attempt to convince the father that no one else goes "gentle into that good night," so neither should he.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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