"Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night" Analysis

Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night

By 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 the 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 poem uses a subtle rhyme scheme in its stanzas. Although, because of the range from the two rhyming words in the stanzas, the rhyme is not heared clearly until the last two lines: "Do not go gentle into that good night./Rage, rage against the dying of the light."(DThomas) The regular rhyme scheme is that the last words of the 1st and 3rd lines rhyme, the last line always being either "light" or "night." The repetition of the phrases "Do not go gentle into that good night"(DThomas) and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (DThomas) emphasis the rhyme at the end of the poem and the meaning and the contrast of these words.

The speaker of this poem is Dylan Thomas himself, as this poem was written when his father was slowly dying and going blind. He urges his father to resist death, although he is dying, and live life as he is dying, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." (DThomas) He also gives examples of other men who have died: wise men, who resisted death because their words "had forked no lightning" (DThomas), good men, who "cry how bright/their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay," (DThomas) wild men, and grave men, who can still rage against death. The "good night" in this poem represents death. However, instead, it represents death as a peaceful experience, using a casual, comforting phrase in order to describe it. By men raging against this peaceful experience, perhaps it shows just how powerful death is, and that is why one must fight against it all the more.