Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Analysis
Alexandra Dondanville
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” is an example of the poetic form villanelle, which is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. “Do not go gentle into that good night” expresses the inevitability of death, and how old men should face it, but the speaker never talks of death directly. He uses certain tactics such as, metaphors to really get his message across to the reader. Though the poem contends with auxiliary themes such as wisdom and family, we see its primary theme, the necessity of facing age and death, through its use of tone, repetition, and metaphors. “Do not go gentle into that good night” expresses the necessity and inevitability of death, encouraging the old to rebel against their fate. The poem suggests we should leave this world kicking and screaming, holding on to life with all we’ve got. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” the tone is adamant and there’s also a sense of urgency there. The speaker demands that old men …show more content…
In the first stanza, the speaker addresses someone whom we do not know telling them that death should be intense for old men. “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” The speaker could be using the span of one day to represent a man’s lifetime, which makes the “close of day” or sunset the approach of death. The speakers decision to use the sunset as a metaphor for death feels almost as if there is a redemption or “reawakening” possible after death because of the known fact that every sunset must later be followed by a sunrise. That being said I’m sure the speaker himself is in a sense afraid of his own death, so this poem could also be a sense of encouragement for
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” is an example of the poetic form villanelle, which is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. “Do not go gentle into that good night” expresses the inevitability of death, and how old men should face it, but the speaker never talks of death directly. He uses certain tactics such as, metaphors to really get his message across to the reader. Though the poem contends with auxiliary themes such as wisdom and family, we see its primary theme, the necessity of facing age and death, through its use of tone, repetition, and metaphors. “Do not go gentle into that good night” expresses the necessity and inevitability of death, encouraging the old to rebel against their fate. The poem suggests we should leave this world kicking and screaming, holding on to life with all we’ve got. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” the tone is adamant and there’s also a sense of urgency there. The speaker demands that old men …show more content…
In the first stanza, the speaker addresses someone whom we do not know telling them that death should be intense for old men. “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” The speaker could be using the span of one day to represent a man’s lifetime, which makes the “close of day” or sunset the approach of death. The speakers decision to use the sunset as a metaphor for death feels almost as if there is a redemption or “reawakening” possible after death because of the known fact that every sunset must later be followed by a sunrise. That being said I’m sure the speaker himself is in a sense afraid of his own death, so this poem could also be a sense of encouragement for