Do not go gentle into that good night<\/a>.”<\/p>\nNote that Thomas doesn’t say not to go gently. He says gentle.<\/p>\n
“Gently” would mean that the person GOES in a gentle way. It’s the GOING that’s being referred to. How does he go? Gently.<\/p>\n
“Gentle” means that the person IS gentle when he goes. It’s HIM that’s being referred to. How was he when he went? Gentle.<\/p>\n
Subtle distinction? Maybe, but that’s why poets make the big bucks. Thomas knew what he was doing. His poem was asking his dad not to be gentle when he went.<\/p>\n
Maybe “drive safe” is similar.<\/p>\n
“Drive safely” would mean that the person DRIVES in a safe way. Isn’t reckless, for example. Avoids trees.<\/p>\n
“Drive safe” means that while driving, the PERSON is safe. May drive like a maniac, but makes it home in one piece anyway.<\/p>\n
“Drive safe” a blessing and wish for safety, rather than a command to drive in a particular way. It’s saying, “be safe, dear friend, whilst traveling along the byways of this world we call home.”<\/p>\n
Still sounds stupid to me, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday I heard someone say to “drive safe.” I hear this a lot, and every time, I add a silent “ly” to the end of “safe.” Drive safely. How do you drive? In what manner? Safely. Not safe. Adverb, not adjective. But yesterday, I paused. Suddenly, I remembered Dylan Thomas’s ultra-famous: “Do not go gentle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-languagelit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}