Essay Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight by Dylan Thomas

In this poem, Thomas mainly talks about death, which is the ending point in a life that will inevitably happen to everyone, but it is more likely for older individuals to experience it. One stanza of the poem, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,” where Thomas really emphasizes to not let death consume you easily is, “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” (Lines 1-3). Based from this, it portrays that Thomas is using symbolism to show that to not give up to death easily. When he states “Do not go gentle into that good night” it is evident that he is meaning to imply to not be gentle or subtle about death since, “night” would symbolize to further mean as one’s eternal

The first group that Thomas depicts are wise men. In the stanza’s first line, “Though wise men at their end know dark is right,” (4) he proposes that they all agree that death is the final part life’s natural cycle and that they contain the wisdom to know that they ought to accept it. Nevertheless, the next line argues that they war against it because they lack the legacy that exist long after one has succumb to death. Thomas uses line (5), “Because their words had forked no lighting” to convey that they grip onto life because they want to leave a print on the sands of time.

The first stanza is pretty much the opening to the rest of the poem. Thomas is saying that even though you are old you should still fight against death. This is evident in the second line when he says “Old age should burn and rave at close of day.” Close of day would be when death is approaching. The first and third lines are the two lines that are interchangeably used throughout the poem both have the same meaning. Both the lines could be interpreted as Thomas pleading to the audience to fight against death.

Dylan Thomas' poetry is rich in imagery and metaphorical language. The opening line, "Do not go gentle into that good night," contains an euphemistic metonymy for death. "That good night" is a word association for death, but is described as "good" in order to overcome the negative connotation usually attached with the idea of death. Also, the word "gentle" which is an adjective, is used instead of "gently," the adverb which more commonly would be used. Thomas does both of these and is found describing the man and providing a tighter bond to the poem.

By the fourth stanza brings in another type of person that don’t allow themselves to fade into the night without fighting back. This is the person that have lived and captured the world in their own imagination only to begin to see it die and diminish as they enjoyed it when he states “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight/And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way.“ As for the fifth stanza, Thomas gives the image of meteors as a symbol that no man should go out quietly but only go out with a big bang when he states. In the sixth and final stanza Thomas begins to make the poem feel personal by bringing in his own father. The writer begins to give the image of his dying father in his final moments. The final moments in which he is begging his father not to go gently into the night and fight and defy death by bringing back the line from the first stanza in the poem “ Do not go gentle into that good night. By using these images, Thomas helps create a specific tone anger,depression and rebelling that people should not

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas explores death and how those facing it should fight for their lives because death is a heartbreaking subject to him. The writer is addressing his father and pleads him to resist the power of death as it would be devastating if the father was to die from the writers perspective. Throughout the poem, Thomas writes about different traits of men. Some aspects include wise, wild, good and grave which helps create a poem that covers all aspects of a person.

Contrary to Frost?s peaceful, luring diction and images, Dylan Thomas uses forceful, irate words to deter death. "No poet gives a greater sense of the feel of life" as Thomas, who provokes the reader to "rage" against death (Ackerman 407). Thomas conveys a resistance towards death with images of fury and fighting, as in "do not go gentle." Vivacious words as "blaze" and "burn" intensify desires to live on and to the fullest. With images of "good night" and "dying of the light," Thomas conveys death as the "end where only darkness prevails" (Savage 381). He takes his "stand within concrete, particular existence, he places birth and death at the poles of his vision" (Savage 381). "Life [for Thomas] begins at birth and ceases at death" therefore leaving no room for a previous life or an after life (Savage 381). Excessive images of anger and rage towards death exemplify the passion Thomas feels for life. His villanelle repeats the theme of living and fury through the most forceful two lines, "do not go gentle into that good night" and "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Contrasting images of light and darkness in the poem create the warmth of living and the coldness in death, so as to shun people from choosing the bleak, bitter frigidity of death.

In Thomas’s poem, the tone is sorrowful with possible anger while in Longfellow’s poem it is more of an encouraging tone. At the end of Thomas’s poem, he becomes very personal and intense in the final stanza when he says “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” (Stanza 6). This is a reference to his father, asking him to put up a fight against death no matter what it takes. Do not just succumb to it. This is where the tone shows somewhat of anger along with the sorrow throughout the rest of the poem, possibly directing his anger towards his father. Towards the end of Longfellow’s poem, the encouraging tone has a sudden shift into a tone of empowerment when it says “Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act,--act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o'erhead!” (lines 19-24). This basically says to live your life like it’s your last day on earth and do not follow the crowd. He is also saying that God is above so do not live in fear. Longfellow is telling you to stand out and make it all worth it, while not acting in the past or future, just act for today itself.

Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a rallying cry to fight death even though death is inevitable. The speaker, who is likely Thomas as he wrote mainly lyric poetry, explains why different men fight death and therefore why his father should fight death. Thomas uses quite distinct nature imagery to depict this.

In Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," the speaker is a son talking to his aging father and pleading with him to fight against death. The son knows that death is the inevitable end to every life, but feels one should not give up to death too easily. By using metaphor, imagery, and repetition, Thomas reinforces the son's message that aging men see their lives with sudden clarity and realize how they might have lived happier, more productive lives. These men rail against fate, fighting for more time to set things right.

In “Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, Dylan Thomas argues ferociously against the standard, pessimistic read towards men kind’s final ending, death, and urges the dying to rekindle their spirit and blaze even within the end of their life. Dylan Thomas’s main argument is that the dying have a life that is not yet fulfilled therefore implying further opportunity to elevate life before death, however, while this could well be valid, Thomas still lacks a certain glimpse of empathy to fully convince readers that this is a completely selfless plea.

His father's death is painful to Thomas because he sees himself lying in that bed; his father's dying reminds him of his own inevitable death. The passion of the last stanza, in which the poet asks his father to bless and curse him, suggests that he has doubts about his relationship with his father. He may feel that he has not been enough of a son. He put off doing things with and for his father because he always felt there would be time later. now time has run out and feels cheated. He's raging for his father now. He'll rage for himself later.

In this poem he talks about a person who’s dying to not accept the death rather fight against it (Hochman, Jhan.). And in last stanza, we realized the person he’s talking about is his own father John Thomas (Schwarz, Daniel R.). Dylan Thomas telling his father to “Rage, rage against death” (Hochman, Jhan.). If I were to analyze the whole poem, we can see on his fist stanza he uses the word “night” to describe death (Shmoop Editorial Team). And later he repeatedly use words like “close of day” and “dying of the light” to remind the death. What Dylan Thomas trying to tell the reader is that “old men shouldn’t peacefully die instead they should burn and rave” (Shmoop Editorial Team). He uses the word rage twice to describe the anger and the frustration (Shmoop Editorial Team). Later he went on to say that “true goodness consist of fighting the inevitability of death with your might: Good men […] Rage rage against the dying of the light” (Shmoop Editorial Team). In his next stanza he describe how great this people can be if they a chance to live little bit longer (Shmoop Editorial

This is expressed by the multiple examples of old men whom regret certain aspects of their lives and defy death even when they know their time is up. The speaker is urging his father to fight against old age and death. The meaning and subject of the poem influence the tone and mood. The tone is one of frustration and insistence. Thomas is slightly angry and demanding. His words are not a request, they are an order. The mood of the poem is is serious and solemn due to the poem focusing mainly on the issue of death. This mood and tone is created by words such as “burn”(2), “Grieved”(11) and “rage”(3) along with phrases such as “crying how bright”(7), “forked no lightning”(5), “near death”(13) and “fierce tears”(17). The insistent feeling is also created by the repetition of the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night”(1), and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”(3). The figurative language used also affect how the meaning, tone and mood are interpreted.

Firstly there is a lot of repetition, such as when the author states, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”. This line is repeated 4 times in the poem, and you can see that repetition was very important to Thomas, as he chose a Villanelle, which is a style of poem that relies greatly on repetition. The author is telling his father to “rage, rage against” (fight), “the dying of the light”, which essentially means the dying of life, or just simply, death. The fact that this is repeated so often makes it stick with you long after you have finished reading and, therefore the idea of death stays with you for a while after reading the poem as well, and it makes you want to fight back against, and not accept, it. Secondly, the author uses one very evident euphemism, when he says “that good night”. In this case, “good night” refers to death. This is a very important part of the poem because, not only is it repeated four times and evident in the title, this shows that, when talking about his father’s impending death, Thomas does not actually want to say the words to either soften the blow for himself, or for his father. Which either shows a great deal of sorrow or compassion in his character. This reinforces the theme, as it is a euphemism for death and describes it as something to avoid, similar to a kid fighting his bedtime as his parents tell