do not go gentle into that good night essay prompts

A Short Analysis of Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ is probably the best-known villanelle in English poetry . If you’re not sure what a villanelle is, don’t worry – it’s not important right now. But it’s one reason why the poem is worth reading. The other is that ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ is one of Dylan Thomas’s most famous, and finest, poems. You can read it here . What follows constitutes our analysis of this poem of brave defiance in the face of certain death.

A number of Dylan Thomas’s poems offer a sinewy, unsentimental approach to death: in another poem, he offers his reasons for refusing to mourn the death of a child in the London Blitz . In ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’, the death he concerns himself with is somewhat closer to home: his own father’s. But Thomas’s own demise would follow not long after he composed these defiant words for his father, so the poem might also, oddly, be analysed as autobiographical, in a quasi-prophetic sort of way.

‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’: summary

The best way to begin analysing ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ is, perhaps, by offering a summary – or paraphrase – of Thomas’s taunt, gnomic statements and commands to his father. Paraphrase might be more useful than summary, given the strong, confident, and imperative voice we hear from the poet here, so here goes:

First stanza: ‘Father, do not allow death to take you without putting up a fight. Old people, as they approach the end of their lives, should be filled with fire and anger.’

Second stanza: ‘Even though wise men know, as they die, that it is fitting for them to die, having lived a long life, they refuse to go gladly into death because they know that a wise man’s words (about accepting one’s death) are all well and good, but are useless in practice.’

Third stanza: ‘Never mind wise men. What about good men? When they are close to death, crying how all their good deeds came to nothing, like so many bright glimmers on the surface of water in a green bay (i.e. beautiful and bright, but frail and of little lasting worth), rage against their imminent deaths.’

Fourth stanza: ‘Okay, what about wild men, then? They lived their lives to the full, and learned all too late that such bold and exciting living only ends in grief, refuse to accept their deaths with meek acceptance.’

Fifth stanza: ‘Serious and sincere men – but also, men who are shortly for the grave, i.e. “grave” men – when approaching their own deaths, realise in a moment of terrible insight that their lives could have been bright and exciting (like the wild men’s lives), and regret not having taken more chances when they had the opportunity, rage against their imminent deaths and the loss of opportunity.’

Sixth stanza: ‘And now let’s turn to consider one man in particular – you, my own father. There, on the edge of death, please show some sign that you still live and are imbued with all the signs of life – I don’t mind whether you bless me with your angry grief or whether you curse me, as long as you do something.’

Of course, such a paraphrase reduces Thomas’s poem to its bare meaning (where a single ‘meaning’ can be divined), and destroys his beautiful use of double meanings (e.g. ‘Grave men’), alliteration ( ‘Blind eyes could blaze’), and repetition (the powerful return of the same two sloganistic phrases which the villanelle has built into its structure). But, with any luck, such a summary helps to get a handle on Thomas’s meaning.

‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’: analysis

As we mentioned at the beginning of this analysis, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ is a villanelle, a poem divided into a series of three-line stanzas where the same two repeated lines of verse comprise the last line of each alternating stanza.

So ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’, as well as providing the poem’s opening line, also concludes the second and fourth stanzas; ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light’ – its counter-refrain, if you will – concludes the first, third, and fifth stanzas. Both lines then conclude the sixth and final stanza of the poem by forming a rhyming couplet.

The villanelle, as the name of the verse form implies, has its origins in French poetry: the form dates back to a late sixteenth-century poem ‘Villanelle (J’ay perdu ma Tourterelle)’ by Jean Passerat, but it was in the twentieth century that it became a great English verse form. (Indeed, it appears that Passerat invented the form himself with this poem).

And a number of English poets – especially Anglophone poets, writing after, and partly against, the high moment of modernism – had a go at writing villanelles in the mid-twentieth century. For other widely anthologised examples, see W. H. Auden’s ‘ If I Could Tell You ’ and William Empson’s ‘ Missing Dates ’.

This poetic form enables Thomas to use the title within the poem as both an instruction (or request) and a simple indicative statement. So although the poem opens with a clear command: ‘Do not go gentle …’ (and note Thomas’s irregular use of ‘gentle’ as an adverb: ‘gently’ would have been to smooth over the realities of dying all too gently), when the mantra recurs at the end of the second stanza it follows a run-on line describing wise men (‘they / Do not go gentle’), and so becomes indicative rather than imperative.

This shifts the poem between the two modes, between asking his father to put up one last fight against the terror of death, and talking of how ‘wise men’ and ‘wild men’ (among others) have provided an example to follow by their defiant actions, using their last breaths to contest their own annihilation.

It is that first stanza which shows Dylan Thomas’s way with vowels (and, for that matter, consonants) so wonderfully: ‘age’ and ‘rave’ play against each other with their long ‘a’ sounds, only to coalesce into ‘rage’ in the next line – decidedly apt, since the rage Thomas describes is a result of old age and, in Philip Larkin’s words, ‘the only end of age’.

‘Rage, rage’ offers a nice example of the spondee (or heavy iamb, depending on your perspective on spondees), where two syllables are sounded with a similar amount of emphasis. Such emphatic words convey the disordered rage which Thomas wants his father to allow to overcome him.

The rhymes, too, cleverly reflect Thomas’s desire that his father allow a little daylight into his darkest final hours: ‘night’ plays off ‘light’ in terms of rhyme and meaning, but ‘day’, sandwiched between them, semantically opposes ‘night’ (just as Thomas’s father is being asked to oppose its oppressions) before giving way to ‘light’.

You can hear Dylan Thomas reading ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ here . It really is an unmissable experience. And perhaps these words of analysis have shed a little light on the workings of the poem, and how it manages to produce such a powerful incantatory effect.

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Full Expert Analysis: "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas

General Education

Learning to read and understand poetry is tricky business. Between the tough terminology—what is synecdoche , anyway?!—and complicated structure, it can sometimes feel impossible to understand what a poet is trying to say. Unfortunately, if you're going to take the AP Literature exam, you're going to have to figure out how to quickly read and understand poetry.

One of the best ways to get a handle on poetry is to read a poem along with a detailed explanation of both what the poem means and how the poet conveys that meaning.

To do this, we're going to take a look at Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night," one of the most famous poems of the 20th century. Not only will you have a handle on the poem's overall message, but you'll also understand the most important techniques Dylan Thomas uses to convey that meaning to the reader.

We promise: by the end of this article, poetry will seem a lot less scary. So let's get started!

Meet the Poet, Dylan Thomas

Just like with a novel, play, or short story, knowing a little bit about an author can help you better understand their work. While there's no way you can learn about every important author ever before you take your AP literature test, you should definitely know a bit about a few of the major players in the literature world. ( Taking a look at our AP literature reading list is a good place to start!)

Dylan Thomas is definitely a literary figure you should know. Born in Swansea, Wales in 1914, Thomas began writing poetry at an early age. In fact, many of his most famous poems—including " And death shall have no dominion" and "Before I knocked" —were written when he was still a teenager! In fact, his poetry was so good that it caught the attention of English literary greats like T.S. Eliot , Geoffrey Grigson , and Stephen Spender , who helped him publish his first book of poetry, 18 Poems, at the age of 20.

Thomas, unlike many poets, had the fortune of being both well-known and well-acclaimed during his lifetime. His poetry collections were critical hits, and he participated in multiple tours—both domestically and abroad—to talk about his work.

And yet, despite his success, Thomas found it difficult to make a living from his poetry alone. Along with securing the funding from wealthy patrons, Thomas also wrote and recorded pieces for BBC radio, and he performed in BBC radio dramas as well. Thomas even dabbled in film and scripted at least five movies, including This Is Colour (1942) and Conquest of a Germ (1944).

Despite Thomas' personal success, his personal life proved difficult. He suffered from breathing issues from childhood, and they plagued him throughout his life. (His breathing problems are what spared him from being conscripted into the military in World War II.) Thomas had married young, and his marriage to Caitlin McNamara was contentious. Thomas was a very heavy drinker and carouser, and his alcoholism and multiple affairs put a strain on his relationship with his wife.

It also put a strain on his body. During an American tour in 1953, Thomas started getting sick. On the night of his 39th birthday, Thomas fell ill and slipped into a coma. He passed away a few days later, and the coroner ruled his cause of death as a mixture of a fatty liver, pneumonia, and brain swelling.

Despite passing away at such a young age, Thomas is considered to be one of the most influential poets of the modern period, and he is certainly one of the most famous Welsh poets of all time.

Unlike some poets, who fit into a poetic movement like metaphysical or baroque poetry, Thomas is hard to classify. His poetry is distinctly modern, and although he was influenced by surrealist poetry , his lyricism and intense emotion have more in common with the romantics than this contemporaries. Additionally, unlike other modern poets writing at the same time, Thomas' poems aren't concerned with social issues . Rather, his work is concerned with the physical processes of life and death, and he blends the ancient and the modern together in ways that were—and still are—remarkably unique.

Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" (1951)

"Do not go gentle into that good night" is one of Thomas' most famous poems, and in fact, might be one of the most famous poems of the 20th century. He composed it when he was traveling with his wife and children in Italy in 1947, and it was published as part of his 1952 poetry collection, In Country Sleep, And Other Poems.

Here's the full text of the poem:

"Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas

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 that 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.

(If you understand things better by hearing them rather than reading them, y ou can actually listen to Dylan Thomas read the poem himself!)

The Background Behind the Poem

Thomas wrote "Do not go gentle into that good night" during a very specific moment in Dylan Thomas' life. His father, David John Thomas, had first introduced him to the wonder of language by reading him Shakespeare before bed at night. Thomas' father was a grammar school teacher, but he had always wanted to be a poet but was never able to realize his dream.

Some experts suggest that Thomas was inspired to write "Do not go gentle into that good night" because his father was dying (though his father didn't pass away until Christmas of 1952).

In a twist of fate, Thomas' poem about death would be one of the last poems he would write before his own untimely demise the following year.

"Do not go gentle into that good night": Meaning and Themes

Before we start talking about Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night," go re-read the poem one more time. Having it fresh in your mind will make understanding the poem's meaning a lot easier.

Done? Great! So what's this poem about, anyway?

"Do not go gentle into that good night" Meaning

At its heart, "Do not go gentle into that good night" is a poem about death. The narrator of the poem is experiencing the death of his father, which we see in the last stanza , or group of lines. Witnessing the death of his father makes the speaker think about death in a more general way. The first five stanzas focus on different types of men, and the speaker thinks about how they will have to face death one day, too.

In the end, the speaker realizes that death cannot be avoided, but it can be challenged. When he tells readers to "not go gentle into that good night" and "rage against the dying of the light," he's telling them to not accept death passively. Instead, he tells people that the last thing a dying person gets to choose is how he faces death. For Thomas, struggling against death is both a valiant—and a human—reaction.

Once you understand what's happening in the poem, you can start to get a better handle on what "Do not go gentle into that good night" means. To get a better handle on the different messages of Thomas's poem, let's take a closer look at three of the poem's main themes / messages .

Theme 1: The Unstoppable Nature of Death

Like we mentioned earlier, "Do not go gentle into that good night" comes out of Thomas' experience watching his father pass away. As a result, the poem's primary purpose is to think about death—or more to the point, to think about dying. In many ways, this is also a poem about man's last mortal act, which is passing away.

Given this, Thomas' poem is often taught as a grieving man's anger at death, which has come to take his father away. The phrase "good night" refers to death—where "good night" references both how we say goodbye to people and how a dying person slips into a final sleep that they never wake up from.

But more specifically, Thomas' poem tells people to "not go gentle" into death. Here, the word "gentle" means "docile," or passive and without resistance. in other words, Thomas tells readers they should not accept death passively, but instead should fight (or "rage") against it ("the dying of the light").

But why is this, exactly? Why fight against death instead of slipping away peacefully?

For Thomas, the best way is to face death with strength and power, like the "wild" heroes of old. In his poem, Thomas argues that this allows dying people to embrace the fiery energy of life one last time, and in many ways, serves as a small way to triumph something they have no control over in the end. Put another way: if you can't avoid dying, it's better to go down fighting than to not fight at all!

It's important to note that although Thomas tells readers to struggle against death, this isn't a poem about triumphing over death. The end result of fighting death isn't victory. The people in the poem don't cheat death in order to live another day. The truth is that the people Thomas mentions are dying—and they will die no matter what.

Thus, "Do not go gentle into that good night" focuses on a person's literal final choice: not whether or not to die, but how they will face the inevitable.

Theme 2: The Power of Life

In "Do not go gentle into that good night," Thomas creates tension between death—which he speaks about symbolically through images of night and darkness—and life, which he represents through images of light. For example, take a look at the second line of the poem. When Thomas says "close of day," he's referencing death. But he also says that people should "burn" against it—and as we all know, things that are burning produce light!

The act of putting two unlike things, like light and dark, in close proximity to one another is called juxtaposition . In this poem, the juxtaposition emphasizes the contrast between life and death. If death is dark and inevitable, then the juxtaposition helps readers see that life is powerful and full of energy.

Let's take a closer look at lines seven and eight to get a better understanding of how this works. The lines read, "Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright/Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay." There are two instances of light imagery in these lines: "bright" and "green bay" (water often appears to be green or blue on a sunny day). These words help describe the "good" man's life, which is full of light and energy. After all, even though his deeds are "frail"—which means "minor" or "insignificant" in this instance—they still might have "danced." In this passage, we can see how the living are full of a vital, powerful energy. Through this, Thomas tells readers that the true tragedy of aging and death is that it takes away the vitality of life.

Theme 3: The Limit of Time

The speaker of Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" is an anonymous narrator whose father is dying, and he represents anyone who's ever lost a loved one.

But the speaker isn't the only character in "Do not go gentle into that good night." Each stanza of the poem features a different person at the end of his life : the "wise" man in stanza two, the "good" man in stanza three, the "wild" man in stanza four, the "grave" man in stanza five, and Thomas' own father in stanza six.

In each stanza, the type of man mentioned is looking back at his life. He's reflecting on what he did—and what he didn't do. In most of the stanzas, the men express regret at what they didn't do. For example, the wise man worries that his "words had forked no lightning." In other words, the wise man—a teacher, scholar, or some other educated person—worries that his ideas will not live on. Each of the characters in this poem, in his own unique way, regrets the things he left undone.

Thomas includes the idea of regret in his poem to show readers how short life truly is. When we are young, we have grand plans for everything we want to do, and we feel like we have all the time in the world to accomplish our goals. But Thomas argues that time goes by quickly. Too often, we "grieve" time "on its way," which is Thomas' way of saying that people often want for time to move faster. But if we do that, we miss out on the opportunities of life. Instead, Thomas is telling readers in a roundabout way that it's important to seize the day. Time is short and death waits for us all, so Thomas reminds readers to embrace life rather than let it pass them by.

The Top 2 Poetic Devices in "Do not go gentle into that good night"

You couldn't build a house without tools like hammers, wrenches, and saws. The same goes for poetry: when a poet is "building" a poem, they need the right tools for the job!

That's where poetic devices come in. A poetic device is a linguistic tool that a poet can use to help convey their message or theme.

We've already talked about a few poetic devices already—like imagery and juxtaposition—but now we want to focus on two other poetic devices that are important to Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night."

The Villanelle

A villanelle is a type of poetic structure . In other words, it's a poem that has a distinct and reproducible form, like a sonnet or a sestina . The villanelle as we know it today dates back to the Renaissance, but the form didn't gain widespread popularity until the 1800s. Despite taking its name from the Italian word "villano," which means "peasant," the villanelle was most popular amongst English poets.

So what makes a poem a villanelle, exactly? In order for a poem to be considered a villanelle, it has to follow a very specific structure.

First, a villanelle has to have nineteen lines. Any more or less, and the poem isn't a villanelle!

Second, villanelles have five tercets and a concluding quatrain. That's a fancy way of saying that the nineteen lines are divided into five stanzas with three lines each (tercets) and one stanza with four lines (a quatrain).

Third, a villanelle must have two refrains and two repeating rhymes. A refrain is a set of lines that repeats itself in regular intervals throughout a poem, especially at the end of a stanza. In Thomas' poem, the lines "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" are refrains. In villanelles, the refrain comprises the last lines of the poem. Repeating rhymes are words that rhyme the same way.

Repeating rhymes occur throughout the poem, and a villanelle has two sets of rhymes that do so. In "Do not go gentle into that good night," the "a" rhymes are "night," "light," "right," "bright," "flight," "sight," and "height." The "b" rhymes are "they," "day," "bay," "way," "gay," and "pray."

Thomas uses a villanelle because villanelles often dealt with pastoral, natural, or simple themes. In this case, death—although scary—is a natural part of life. Since villanelles deal with nature, it makes sense that Thomas chose to use that form for his poem.

Furthermore, repeated refrain echoes the way in which grief works. Even though we know our loved one can't escape death, our minds often find themselves returning to the possibility that they might not die. If only they fight a little harder, maybe they will live just a little longer. The refrain helps juxtapose the hope of the living against the inevitability of death. Thus, Thomas uses the villanelle to capture what death is like for a loved one, too.

Enjambment is the poetic technique where the line breaks in a poem happen in the middle of a sentence. (When a line ends with a punctuation mark, it's called an end stop.)

Enjambment works as a way for a poet to build both tension and motion within a poem. The tension comes from the fact that the poet's thought isn't finished at the end of a sentence. Each line with enjambment is a mini-cliffhanger, which makes the reader want to keep reading to find out what happens! (If you watch Game of Thrones , then you're really familiar with how cliffhangers work!)

Because readers want to keep reading, enjambment gives the poem a quick—and sometimes frantic—pace . It's almost like the poet can't finish their thoughts fast enough. Sometimes enjambment can also create drama, especially when the following line isn't what the reader thought it would be.

In "Do not go gentle into that good night," enjambment happens in about half the stanzas. One good example of enjambment and how it works comes in stanza five, where Thomas writes, "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay." In these lines, enjambment creates drama and allows Thomas to play with words a little bit. In the first line, the grave men can see with "blinding sight," meaning they can look back on their lives and see it with extreme clarity.

But instead of telling us what the men see, Thomas twists things in the next line. When Thomas says "blind eyes," he means literal blindness. In old age, people often lose their eyesight, but it doesn't mean they can't see their past clearly in their own memories. Their memories "blaze" in their blind eyes; in other words, the joy of a life well lived reflects in their face, despite their age. In this instance, enjambment creates drama and lets Thomas a) put an unexpected twist into his poem, and b) reflect the rush of excitement and joy the "grave men" feel in the structure of his poem.

More importantly, each instance of enjambment in "Do not go gentle into that good night" gives the poem a sense of forward motion. Even though the speaker wants to stop time—and as a result, stop death—both time and the poem march toward an inevitable conclusion.

What's Next?

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Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Do not go gentle into that good night

By Dylan Thomas

‘Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night’ is Dylan Thomas’s most famous work, penned in response to his father’s death. This powerful poem urges resistance against the inevitable nature of death, encapsulating Thomas’s rich imagery and universal themes.

Dylan Thomas

Nationality: Welsh

His poetry often explored themes of life, death, nature, and the complexities of human emotions.

Key Poem Information

Unlock more with Poetry +

Central Message: One should fight against death till the last moment.

Themes: Aging , Death , Journey

Speaker: Mostly likely Dylan Thomas, although anonymous

Emotions Evoked: Bravery , Confidence , Courage

Poetic Form: Parable , Triplet

Time Period: 20th Century

This poem explores the human experience of aging and death, with a message of resistance and defiance that continues to inspire readers to this day.

Poem Analyzed by Andrew Walker

B.A. Honors in Professional Writing and Communication (Minor in Historical Studies)

‘ Do not go gentle into that good night’ was initially published in a literary journal in 1951.  It later appeared in one of Thomas’s own volumes the next year. It is a noticeably dark poem, concerning itself with the end of life and the personal struggle to hang onto that life for as long as possible. Fans of Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) have speculated that the poem was written for his ailing father, who passed away the year after the poem was first published. But, without clear evidence, it’s important to consider the speaker as potentially separate from the poet.

It is interesting (albeit very sad) to note that in the two years following the poem’s publication, Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) himself, along with his father, unborn son, and three of his friends, would also pass away, giving the work a grim, real-world aspect of foreshadowing to it.

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Explore Do not go gentle into that good night

• 6 Structure and Form
• 7 Literary Devices
• 8 Detailed Analysis
• 9 Why Did Dylan Thomas Write ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’? 
• 10 Similar Poetry

‘Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems )  is a moving poem that defines death and tells readers to defy it and rage against it for as long as possible.

The speaker spends most of the poem telling readers, and it as it turns out their own father, not to give into death peacefully and calmly. One shouldn’t just accept that it’s coming and go to it willingly. Good people resist until the last moment, knowing that there’s more that they could to improve the world. The same can be said for daring and energetic people who know how exciting and beautiful life can be. In the final stanza , the speaker turns to address someone personal in their lives– their father. This person is facing old age, and the speaker wants them to “rage” against the dark like everyone else.

The principal idea for this poem is that human beings should resist death with all of their strength before the end.

The poem includes the repetition of the line “do not go gentle into that good night” several times, a great example as a refrain . These lines act as a mirror for each other concerning their connotation . The first refrain has a calmer and more positive connotation to it, specifically by using the phrases “gentle” and “good night.”

The second one, on the other hand, repeats the word “rage” and references “the dying of the light,” two much more grim ideas that are both expressions of the same idea as in the first one. The repetitive nature of these lines, as previously mentioned, conveys an aspect of obsession from the narrator on the topic.

If the narrator is meant to be the voice of Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) himself, then this could make sense in the light of his father’s illness at the time of his creation for the work.

Thomas engages with themes of death, defiance, and old age .

All three of these themes are wrapped up in the speaker’s declarations about death and how one should confront it. Throughout the first five stanzas of the poem, the speaker spends the lines generally talking about death and how one should stand up in the face of it. One should not “go gentle” into the darkness but “rage” against the “dying of the light.”

Despite this, the poet acknowledges that death is universal. There’s no way for someone to avoid death forever. It’s always going to catch up in the end. The speaker tries to teach the reader, and it turns out, one specific person, how to deal with death.

It’s not until the last stanza of the poem that the subject goes from broad to specific. It becomes clear that the poet is addressing his or her father and had him in mind the whole time. The poem is at once universal and specific. It applies to everyone, but at this moment, it is for one person–the speaker ’s father.

In  ‘Do not go gentle into that good night,’  Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) uses light, meteors, and lightning.

• Light . Light is the most important symbol used in this poem. It symbolizes a will to live and a desire to change the world for the better. When the listener and reader fight against death, they are headed towards the light and away from the darkness. Light symbolizes the best parts of life and everything worth fighting for.
• Meteors . In lines thirteen through fourteen, the poet describes “Grave men, near death” and how blind eyes “could blaze like meteors and be gay.” They can still experience joy like a bright flash across the sky. The meteor symbolizes hope and the potential for a lasting effect on the world.
• Lightning . Lightning symbolizes inspiration and is seen in lines four through five when the wise men realize that their “words had forked no lightning.” They realized there was no they could’ve done to improve the lives of those around them. The men continue to fight for their lives with the hope that they’ll experience that flash of lightning and be bettered because of it. Lightning also symbolizes power. It is beyond the touch of death, just like these men would like to be.

Even though Thomas is often cast as the speaker in  ‘Do not go gentle into that good night,’  the speaker is actually anonymous. They do not have a name, gender, or age. The only piece of personal information available is that they have an ailing father whose near death. They care deeply about this person and use the broad descriptions of death in the first five stanzas as a prelude to their main intention–speaker to and about their father.

Structure and Form

‘Do not go gentle into that good night’  is an example (and probably the most famous English example) of a villanelle , a form of poetry first conceived in seventeenth-century France .

Today, it is an uncommon poetic form but still an effective one when used properly. The villanelle has a rigid form to it: it is a poem written in six stanzas, where the first five are tercets , and the final one is a quatrain . Furthermore, it is characterized by the appearance of two repeating refrains .

The first refrain is always the first line of the first verse and is repeated at the end of the second and fourth verse; the second refrain is the last line of the first verse and is repeated at the end of the third and fifth verses . The first refrain is also the third line of the fifth verse.

The refrains must rhyme with each other; as well, the second lines of each verse must rhyme with each other, and the first lines must rhyme with the refrains. As such, the rhyming pattern of a villanelle is always ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA.

The villanelle is an uncommonly seen form of poetry because of the rules and requirements associated with it. Typically, this kind of poem takes advantage of its rigid repetition and is used to express some form of obsessive thought process. This poem is a strong example of the latter.

With regards to the meter , the poem is primarily in iambic pentameter , featuring notable metrical variations and irregular rhythms . Such irregularities include the emphasis on “rage” against death. Opening with spondees and balancing with pyrrhic feet, it conveys a passionate, insistent plea to fight death, mirrored in its recurring metrical disruptions.

Literary Devices

Dylan makes use of several literary devices in  ‘Do not go gentle into that good night.’  These include:

• Refrain : the two repeating refrains in this poem, naturally enough, form the primary message that informs the meaning of the work. When Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) references “that good night,” he is using it as a metaphor for the end of life and as a parallel to “the dying of the light,” which is a symbol for the same idea.
• Alliteration : seen through the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. For example, “learn” and “late” in line two of the fourth stanza and “Blind” and “blaze” in line two of the fifth stanza.
• Enjambment : occurs when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point—for example, the transition between lines two and three of the second stanza.
• Imagery : occurs when the poet uses especially effective description. For example, these lines from the third stanza: “ Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright / Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay.” 

Detailed Analysis

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.

In each stanza of ‘ Do not go gentle into that good night ,’ Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) addresses a different aspect of the dying process before repeating one of the central refrains of the work.

In the first stanza, the speaker expresses the desire to live as something fierce . Old age, they say, is a process of “burning and raving,” two images that are not commonly associated with old age. The conflicting images create a call to action early in the piece because Thomas and his speaker are willing to challenge typical associations in the minds of the readers.

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.

The second stanza takes on a different approach, reminding the reader that despite the earlier commands, death is both inevitable and natural.

It uses lightning as a symbol to describe the feeling of incompleteness that can accompany the aging process — when the wise men referenced feel that their words have “forked no lightning,” they are feeling as though they have not accomplished everything they set out to in their life. Because of this fact, they “ do not go gentle into that good night .”

Stanzas Three and Four

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 that good night.

The next two stanzas succinctly discuss a nearly opposite idea, namely that resisting death is also a natural phenomenon.

Wise men, good men, and grave men all resist dying. Thomas continues to use a wide variety of symbols , with both positive and negative connotations , to reinforce the image of an aged man looking back on his life and realizing they have more to contribute to the world. In the third stanza, the good men cry, imagining how much more they could have done, too late, now that they’ve realized they’re dying. Following that, the grave men realize something similar, seeing with their blinding sight — looking back on their lives now that their mortality has granted them perfect clarity in retrospect.

Stanzas Five and Six

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.

The poem concludes with an address to the speaker ’s father , with a conflicting plea to both curse and bless them with his tears.

The conflicting images of the father’s tears being both a curse and a blessing echo the earlier idea that death is something that is both natural and something to be railed against. The tears of the father are a curse because they strike the fear of mortality into his child and a blessing because they remind that child to live their life to the fullest extent possible.

Ultimately, ‘ Do not go gentle into that good night’  is a poem that attempts to describe the author’s complex relationship with his own mortality. This is certainly one of the most complex emotions an artist can attempt to describe in their work, and yet ‘ Do not go gentle into that good night’ remains one of Thomas’s most famous poems for how well it succeeds in that endeavor.

Why Did Dylan Thomas Write  ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’? 

As mentioned above, Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) is thought to have written this poem while considering his father’s impending death. His father, David John Thomas, died in 1952, the year after Thomas published the poem. Due to the fact that the speaker mentions a “father” specifically in the final lines has led many to believe that this is Thomas’ father, making Dylan Thomas ( Bio | Poems ) the speaker of the poem .  There is no complete evidence that this is the case, though. More likely than anything, Thomas probably wrote this poem as a way of dealing with mortality more generally. It’s something that everyone, no matter their profession, social status, or personal history, has to face. This is also the primary reason the poem has withstood the test of time and is as popular today as it is.

Similar Poetry

Readers who enjoyed  ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’  should also consider reading other Dylan Thomas poems . For example:

• ‘ Fern Hill ‘ — depicts time, the speaker’s past, and views times gone by with nostalgia .
• ‘ And Death Shall Have No Dominion ‘ — looks at the way death controls humankind and the fact that even though it is powerful, it can’t control everything.
• ‘ Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines ‘ — describes the effect of hope that springs in a place where there is total hopelessness.

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20th century, death of a father.

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“Fans of Dylan Thomas( Bio  |  Poems ) have speculated that the poem was written for his ailing father, who passed away the year after the poem was first published. But, without clear evidence, it’s important to consider the  speaker  as separate from the poet.

> is this not clear evidence who the subject is when the speaker says;

And you, my father , there on the sad height,

Hey Thomas, You are right with what you said and this is why poetry is great – so many interpretations! The explicit reference to “my father” in Dylan Thomas’s poem does strongly suggest a personal connection. This line, coupled with the historical context of Thomas’s father’s failing health, implies that the poem is indeed an emotional response to his father’s mortality. While the speaker is technically anonymous, many interpret the speaker as a representation of Dylan Thomas himself, particularly given the autobiographical elements of the poem. What I would say ultimately is that the fact the speaker is seemingly anonymous and not specifically named, is purposeful from Thomas. He purposefully made the speaker vague, so it could easily be applied to anyone, and is not specific to Dylan Thomas himself. I tend to find the poems that speak broadest are the ones that are ambiguous, allowing the reader to apply …  Read more »

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Walker, Andrew. "Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/dylan-thomas/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night/ . Accessed 6 September 2024.

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Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas – Expert Analysis

July 15, 2023

Welsh poet Dylan Thomas published “Do not go gentle into that good night” in 1951, just two years before he died from alcohol-related health complications in 1953. Generally, when it comes to any kind of literary analysis, I’m a big fan of Roland Barthes’ “death of the author” thesis: basically, the idea that using an author’s biographical details to ascribe meaning to a text is a flawed way of interpreting or analyzing it . Nevertheless, I opened by pointing out the proximity of the poem’s publication to the death of its author. That’s because the poem is, undoubtedly, a meditation on death—and how to confront it. The poem’s speaker urges their readers, and later their father, not to submit willingly to death. But if that were the poem’s entire meaning, we could stop our whole “Do not go gentle into that good night” analysis right there. Instead, we’ll go through the poem systematically, and hopefully tease out some of its nuances, quirks, and deeper meanings.

Do not go gentle into that good night

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 that 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.

Do not go gentle into that good night analysis – structure and form

Any “Do not go gentle into that good night” analysis requires a discussion of the poem’s form. “Do not go gentle into that good night” is a villanelle— a poetic form that dates back to 16th century France . A villanelle consists of nineteen lines divided into six stanzas—five tercets (a stanza of three lines) and a final quatrain (a stanza of four lines). Villanelles also make use of refrains, or phrases that get repeated at regular intervals throughout a poem. In a villanelle, the first and third lines of the first stanza become refrains that appear as the last lines in alternating subsequent stanzas. The first line of the first stanza— Do not go gentle into that good night —becomes the last line of the second and fourth stanzas. The third line of the first stanza—­ Rage, rage against the dying of the light —becomes the last line of the third and fifth stanzas. The two refrains appear once more as the last two lines of the final quatrain.

But why would Thomas have chosen the villanelle—a relatively out-of-fashion (at least at the time of his writing it) and rigid form—to confront his subject matter? One critic has suggested that the twin refrains embody a duality reflected in the content of the poem—between the impulse to resist death at all costs and the acceptance that death is a natural and inevitable part of life. When reading the poem, or, even better, when listening to Thomas himself recite it , those dual refrains do begin to take on a hypnotic, inevitable quality. And that recurrence, or inevitability, mirrors the inevitability of death itself.

Do not go gentle into that good night analysis – 1st stanza

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.

The first stanza lays out what might as well be the poem’s thesis—that despite the inevitability of death, it should be resisted right up until the end. A few interesting things to note: first, the poem’s speaker is anonymous, and remains anonymous throughout. We don’t ever figure out the speaker’s name, age, or gender. In fact, the only thing we know about the speaker is that they have a father near the end of his life. Second, the refrains in this stanza are imperatives , or commands—they implore us, warn us, plead with us: Do not go gentle into that good night…Rage against the dying of the light . In subsequent stanzas, though, the refrains aren’t always imperatives. Finally, the first stanza is somewhat disconnected from the others; it’s not grounded in time or place, and we don’t see any characters. The language is almost disembodied, universal.

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.

Here, the speaker suggests that it’s wise to accept the inevitability and universality of death. But even though the wise accept death, they still resist it. Why? Well, because their words had forked no lightning . What the heck does that mean? Words are descriptors, messengers, and conveyors of meaning. The verb “to fork” can be understood as “digging into something with a fork”—to grab hold of, capture. And if there’s one thing that seems truly impossible to fork, to capture, it’d be lightning. Is the speaker suggesting that language somehow fails to capture the depth and reality of our world? In any case, the emotion here is one of regret. And I love the sly inversion: we often think of a fork of lightning or a lightning fork in the night sky, but here it’s the lightning that’s being forked.

Do not go gentle into that good night Analysis –  3rd stanza

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 .

The third stanza opens with another subtle but brilliant inversion of language: we see good men “wave by.” I’m used to coupling the words “wave” and “bye,” as in, “The students waved bye to their parents.” Here, though, men are waving by , passing by , on a wave that’s ultimately going to crash against the shore. But in a way, they are waving bye , too: they’re headed towards the end, towards death. Again, the feeling of the third stanza is regret. Good men look back on their lives and wish they could’ve done more, so they “rage against the dying of the light” (note how the refrain isn’t an imperative here; it’s a description). The “green bay” might be a stand-in for the men’s life—the color green makes me picture sea grass, algae, and life.    

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 that good night.

The fourth stanza stands in direct contrast to the second. In the second, the wise men’s words failed to fork lightning. Here, wild men actually succeed in doing something just as impossible—catching the sun. The fact that the wild men succeeded where the wise men failed, however, doesn’t seem to change anything. Wild and wise both are headed for inevitable death. Maybe the speaker is gesturing towards the futility and impermanence of our actions during our lives. And because we’re all too aware of that impermanence, we rage at the fact of death. One more interesting note here—what exactly is the “it” that the wild men grieve? Are they grieving the sun itself? If so, that leads to two possible readings. They could be grieving the sun going down, day transforming to night. Or they could be lamenting the fact that even the sun is impermanent. The latter interpretation might be a little more far-fetched, but I like it. The poem’s depiction of death gets grimmer—if that’s even possible. Death is so implacable and all-encompassing that it swallows the sun.

Do not go gentle into that good night – analysis – 5th stanza

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 .

Right away we get what might be the most obvious of the poem’s puns: grave men . The men are grave—they’re serious—and they’re quite literally grave—they’re approaching death. These men (and I think “men” can be read to mean “people”) come to realize that old age doesn’t—or shouldn’t—equate with lifelessness. Even blind eyes can “blaze like meteors and be gay.” And therefore, even the elderly, those closer to death, should be indignant that their lives will come to a close. I love the use of alliteration in this stanza: “who see with blinding sight / blind eyes could blaze like meteors…”

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 .

In the sixth and final stanza, we go from macro to micro, from the universal to the personal. The speaker addresses their father, who seems to be on the verge of death. The speaker prays to be both blessed and cursed by their father’s tears. The tears are a blessing because they are “fierce,” an affirmation of life in the face of death. They’re a curse because they signal the unyielding approach of death. Any death, but especially the death of a parent, is a reminder of one’s own mortality. A pretty straightforward stanza in my estimation, but what’s going on with that weird “sad height”? The imagery could be read as a simple metaphor for being on the “edge” of death. But it might also be seen as a physical representation of the psychic aloneness one feels at death’s door. One scholar has even suggested that it could be an allusion to Shakespeare’s “King Lear” .

Do not go gentle into that good night analysis – Summing up

Any “Do not go gentle into that good night” analysis—or any analysis of literature, for that matter—requires some interpretive risk-taking. It’s risky to say with one hundred percent confidence what a poem “means.” Is the “sad height” really an allusion to the cliffs of Dover in King Lear ? Does the “green bay” really represent life? These are questions that don’t have answers. And looking to Thomas himself is no help either. After all, if all Thomas wanted to do was tell the world his thoughts on death, he could have written an op-ed or an argumentative essay, or a research paper. But he didn’t. In the end, all we have is the poem, the work itself.

Do not go gentle into that good night – Meaning

With all that preamble out of the way, it does seem safe to say that a “Do not go gentle into that good night” analysis leaves us with a key insight about death—that death should be fought against, raged against, even though it’s inevitable. But maybe there’s a different insight to be had if we probe a little deeper. Okay, death is bad, and fighting against death is good. But why? Why should we not go gentle, why should we rage? At least as I see it, the poem suggests an answer: because death is unfair. Read this way, the poem isn’t really “about” death as much as it’s about the human predicament (as grandiose as that sounds). We humans are aware of our mortality. We’re aware we’re impermanent—not just us, but our actions, too. Our deeds are frail, our words fork no lightning. Any attempt to have a lasting impact on the world is ultimately doomed. To be human is to be all too aware of this fact. So we should be indignant, outraged. We should burn and rave and rage.

Do not go gentle into that good night Analysis – Additional Resources

If you found this literary analysis helpful, you may also wish to check out additional blogs from our High School Success series. Highlights include:

• The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost – Analysis
• To Be or Not to Be Hamlet Analysis
• The Great Gatsby Themes and Analysis
• High School Success

Dane Gebauer

Dane Gebauer is a writer and teacher living in Miami, FL. He received his MFA in fiction from Columbia University, and his writing has appeared in Complex Magazine and Sinking City Review .

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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Summary & Analysis by Dylan Thomas

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a poem by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, first published in 1951. Though the poem was dedicated to Thomas’s father, it contains a universal message. The poem encourages the dying—the sick and the elderly—to fight bravely against death. The poem also celebrates the vibrancy and energy of human life, even though life is fragile and short.

• Read the full text of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

The Full Text of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

“do not go gentle into that good night” summary, “do not go gentle into that good night” themes.

Death and Defiance

Family, Grief, and Old Age

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “do not go gentle into that good night”.

Do not go ... ... of the light.

Though wise men ... ... that good night.

Good men, the ... ... of the light.

Lines 10-12

Wild men who ... ... that good night.

Lines 13-15

Grave men, near ... ... of the light.

Lines 16-19

And you, my ... ... of the light.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Symbols

• Line 3: “light”
• Line 9: “light”
• Line 15: “light”
• Line 19: “light”

• Line 5: “lightning”

• Line 8: “green bay”

• Line 14: “meteors”

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

End-stopped line.

• Line 1: “night,”
• Line 2: “day;”
• Line 3: “light.”
• Line 4: “right,”
• Line 6: “night.”
• Line 8: “bay,”
• Line 9: “light.”
• Line 10: “flight,”
• Line 11: “way,”
• Line 12: “night.”
• Line 14: “gay,”
• Line 15: “light.”
• Line 16: “height,”
• Line 17: “pray.”
• Line 18: “night.”
• Line 19: “light.”
• Lines 5-6: “they / Do”
• Lines 7-8: “bright / Their”
• Lines 13-14: “sight / Blind”
• Line 3: “,”
• Line 7: “,,” “,”
• Line 9: “,”
• Line 11: “,,” “,”
• Line 13: “,,” “,”
• Line 15: “,”
• Line 16: “,,” “,”
• Line 17: “,”
• Line 19: “,”

Alliteration

• Line 1: “n,” “g,” “g,” “n”
• Line 3: “R,” “r”
• Line 6: “n,” “g,” “g,” “n”
• Line 7: “b,” “b”
• Line 8: “d,” “d”
• Line 9: “R,” “r”
• Line 10: “s,” “s”
• Line 11: “l,” “l”
• Line 12: “n,” “g,” “g,” “n”
• Line 13: “s,” “s”
• Line 14: “Bl,” “bl,” “b”
• Line 15: “R,” “r”
• Line 18: “n,” “g,” “g,” “n”
• Line 19: “R,” “r”
• Line 2: “O,” “a,” “a,” “o,” “a”
• Line 3: “a,” “a,” “y,” “i”
• Line 4: “ou,” “i,” “o,” “i”
• Line 7: “y,” “y,” “i”
• Line 8: “ai,” “ee,” “ee,” “a”
• Line 9: “a,” “a,” “y,” “i”
• Line 10: “a,” “a”
• Line 11: “a,” “i,” “i,” “ay”
• Line 13: “e,” “ea,” “i,” “i”
• Line 14: “i,” “eye,” “a,” “i,” “e,” “e,” “e,” “ay”
• Line 15: “a,” “a,” “y,” “i”
• Line 19: “a,” “a,” “y,” “i”
• Line 1: “D,” “n,” “t,” “g,” “n,” “t,” “nt,” “t,” “g,” “d,” “n,” “t”
• Line 2: “l,” “d,” “r,” “r,” “l”
• Line 3: “R,” “g,” “r,” “g”
• Line 4: “n,” “n,” “r,” “k,” “r”
• Line 5: “c,” “s,” “r,” “r,” “s,” “r,” “k”
• Line 6: “D,” “n,” “g,” “nt,” “nt,” “t,” “g,” “d,” “n,” “t”
• Line 7: “b,” “r,” “b,” “t”
• Line 8: “r,” “r,” “d,” “d,” “d,” “n,” “r,” “n”
• Line 10: “s,” “s,” “n,” “n”
• Line 11: “n,” “l,” “n,” “l”
• Line 12: “D,” “n,” “g,” “nt,” “nt,” “t,” “g,” “d,” “n,” “t”
• Line 13: “r,” “n,” “n,” “r,” “d,” “s,” “bl,” “n,” “d,” “s”
• Line 14: “Bl,” “nd,” “c,” “d,” “bl,” “l,” “k”
• Line 16: “th,” “r,” “th,” “r,” “th”
• Line 17: “r,” “s,” “ss,” “r,” “c,” “r,” “s,” “r”
• Line 18: “D,” “n,” “g,” “nt,” “t,” “g,” “d,” “n,” “t”
• Line 14: “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay”
• Line 1: “Do not go gentle,” “good night”
• Line 2: “Old age should burn,” “close of day”
• Line 3: “the dying of the light”
• Line 5: “forked no lightning”
• Line 6: “good night”
• Line 7: “the last wave by”
• Line 8: “danced in a green bay”
• Line 9: “the dying of the light”
• Line 10: “caught and sang the sun in flight”
• Line 15: “the dying of the light”
• Line 16: “the sad height”
• Line 18: “good night”
• Line 19: “the dying of the light”
• Line 3: “Rage, rage”
• Line 9: “Rage, rage”
• Line 15: “Rage, rage”
• Line 19: “Rage, rage”
• Line 1: “Do not go gentle into that good night”
• Line 3: “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
• Line 6: “Do not go gentle into that good night”
• Line 9: “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
• Line 12: “Do not go gentle into that good night”
• Line 15: “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
• Lines 18-19: “Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Parallelism

• Line 4: “Though wise men at their end know dark is right”
• Line 7: “Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright”
• Line 10: “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight”
• Line 13: “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight”
• Line 17: “Curse, bless”
• Lines 10-12: “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 that good night.”

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “go”; Line 6: “go”; Line 12: “go”; Line 18: “go”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

Rhyme scheme, “do not go gentle into that good night” speaker, “do not go gentle into that good night” setting, literary and historical context of “do not go gentle into that good night”, more “do not go gentle into that good night” resources, external resources.

Go Gentle Into That Good Night — An article at the Herald Mail calls into question the advice Dylan Thomas gives to his dying father.

Dylan Thomas Reads "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" — In this brief video, the poet Dylan Thomas reads aloud his own poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

'Rage Against The Dying Of The Light': How Entrepreneurs Can Persevere — At Forbes Magazine, Mike Templeman thinks about how Thomas's poem might serve as an inspiration to contemporary business leaders.

Dylan Thomas's Life — A detailed biography of Dylan Thomas from The Poetry Foundation.

The Story Behind "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." — Maria Popova tells the story behind "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

LitCharts on Other Poems by Dylan Thomas

A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London

In My Craft or Sullen Art

Poem in October

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

The Hand That Signed the Paper

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Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer..

• Do you agree with the speaker that people should fiercely resist death, clinging passionately to their lives? Or should people die calmly?
• How does the repetition of the villanelle's two refrains, "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" make you feel as a reader? Does your reaction to these repeated lines change as the poem progresses?
• How would the poem sound different if Thomas had written "gently" instead of "gentle" in the refrain?
• Another famous poem about death is John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," which begins with the words "As virtuous men pass mildly away." What would the speaker of "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" have thought of the idea that "virtuous men" decide to "pass away" in a mild way? (Extra Bonus Project: compare and contrast Donne's poem with Thomas's!)
• Literary critics like to talk about Dylan Thomas's lyricism – the musical quality of his poetry. What aspects of "Do Not Go Gentle" might give a critic the impression of a song or song lyrics? What do you think the relationship is between poetry and music?

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Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas : Questions and Summary

Table of Contents

Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night By Dylan Thomas

Central Idea : ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ was published in 1951. It is a personal poem written for the poet’s own father, who lay dying. The poet wants his father not to give in but to struggle against impending death. The poem is a protest against the idea of accepting death stoically the way most religions and philosophies of the world advocate while admitting the inevitability of death, the poet exhorts us to play the warrior, struggling to save life till the last. Thus the poem is a protest against those philosophies that advocate accepting death calmly and stoically. The poet believes in struggling against death and trying to remain alive as long as one can. No doubt, death is reality. It is inevitable. But we should not bow to the inevitable without giving a struggle. We should play the warrior in our struggle against death. So this poem is a protest against the conventional acceptance of death. In this poem, death has been seen as a kind of challenge. Man must accept this challenge and fight against it. This poem deals with philosophic contemplation.

Short Summary to the Poem

‘Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night’ is a famous poem by Dylan Thomas. It was published in 1951. It is a personal poem written for the poet’s own father, who lay dying. Perhaps, the father had accepted his death very passively and was considering himself already dead. But the poet wants his father not to give in but to struggle against impending death. The poet gives the examples of all sorts of people to encourage his father. He gives the example of wise men, good men, wild men and even deeply religious men.

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First of all the poet describes the reaction of the wise men towards death. Wise men know that death is inevitable. Even then they do not bow to their death passively. In their old age, they do not dismay even if their words or writings have failed to bring any enlightment among people. They keep their spirits up till the end of their life.

Wild men are the opposite of good men. They spend all their youth in the pursuit of pleasures. And when old age comes they realise that they have misused their youth. So they try to give themselves to some noble work. Such men also do not go gentle into that good night.

To conclude we can say that this poem is a courageous rebellion against death. The poet says:

2. What is the “dying of the light”?

Answers may vary. Example: Thomas writes a villanelle to show the constrictions placed on men by death. By writing his poem about rebellion in a constricting form, its theme is reinforced.

4. According to the first stanza, what does the speaker seem to be asking? Put your response in your own words.

5. What kind of men should rage against the dying of the light? What four types of men does Thomas address?

6. Consider the punctuation used in the first two lines of the poem’s last stanza. What do the caesurae (commas) suggest about the speaker’s feelings toward his father?

The commas separate the speaker’s ideas and add a feeling of spontaneity to the words. The second line, “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray” does not suggest that the speaker wants to be cursed and blessed by his father, but rather that he has cursed, blessed, and prayed for his father. The speaker, the son, is forced to live with the pain of the dead father: “me now with your fierce tears.”

Examination–Style Questions

Reference to the Context : These lines have been taken from the poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night’. This poem has been written by Dylan Thomas. In this poem the poet believes in struggling against death and trying to remain alive as long as one can. No doubt, death is reality. It is inevitable. But we should not bow to the inevitable without giving a struggle. We should play the warrior in our struggle against death. He cites many examples in this context.

Reference to the Context: These lines have been taken from the poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night’. This poem has been written by Dylan Thomas. In this poem the poet believes in struggling against death and trying to remain alive as long as one can. No doubt, death is reality.It is inevitable. But we should not bow to the inevitable without giving a struggle. We should play the warrior in our struggle against death. He cites many examples in this context.

Explanation : In these lines the poet says that good men spend their life by doing noble deeds. But when they are near death they realize how ineffective their deeds have been. They regret that they wasted the happy hours of their life in doing serious work only. They did not spend the life on eating, drinking and being merry. So when they are very close to their death they want to sing and dance. They rage and rage against death. They struggle with all their might to keep the light of their life alive.

Explanation : In these lines the poet says that wild people lead a life of pleasure. But the serious minded people are proud and arrogant. But at the end of their lives, their eyes cannot see clearly. Their eyes become dim. Now they realize that nothing can stop death. Yet they hope to live. They wish that their eyes could regain their light and shine like bright stars. They want to fight against death to their last breath. The grave men see that if they had kept their eyes open to the light of life, they could have been happy. Religious men, when they are nearing their death, have a premonition of it. They know when their death is coming. Yet they do not give themselves quietly to death. The poet says that even those people who have no such premonition remain happy in their life till the last moment. They do not worry about death since they do not know when it will come. And when it comes, they struggle against it till the end.

Comprehensions Questions

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.

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.

1.Who wrote these lines and who are they addressed to? Ans. These lines are written by Dylan Thomas, and they are addressed to the poet’s father who lay dying.

4. What do wise men know at their end? Ans. At their end wise men know death is a fact which cannot be denied. Even then they do not accept death passively.

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.

2. What common thing does the poet point out between wild men and grave men? Ans.The poet points out that both wild and grave men do not go gentle into the good night. They struggle to keep alive as long as they can.

Ans.The poet exhorts his father not to give in to death, but struggle against death till the end.

Short-Answer Questions

Q. 1. In what sense is the poem an acceptance as well as defiance of death? Explain the central idea of the poem.

The poet wants his father not to give in but to struggle against impending death. The poem is a protest against the idea of accepting death stoically the way most religions and philosophies of the world advocate. While admitting the inevitability of death, the poet exhorts us to play the warrior, struggling to save life till the last.

Q. 2. Explain in detail the poet’s idea of heroism in facing death?

So these lines clearly show the poet’s idea of heroism in facing death.

Essay Type Questions

The poet says that no person accepts death meekly. Religious men have a premonition of death in their old age. They know when their death will come. Yet they do not give themselves quietly to death. They make every struggle against the dying of the light.

Good men spend all their life in doing good deeds. When they are close to death, they realize that their deeds have been too frail to produce any effect. They are filled with regret that they derived no enjoyment from life. So they want to sing and dance in their old age. So they also fight against death. And in the last the poet describes the reaction of wise men towards death. Wise men know that death is inevitable. Even then they do not bow to their death passively. In their old age, they do not dismay even if their words or writings have failed to bring any enlightment among people. They keep their spirits up till the end of their life. They do not go gentle into that good night. In this way the poet concludes the poem by describing all kinds of people’s struggle bravely against death. So the poet says to his father not to give in but to struggle against impending death. The poet says:

‘ Do not go gentle into that good night Rage, rage against the dying of the light’.

Objective Type Questions

Ans. Dylan Thomas.

Q. 2. How should old age behave at the time of death?

Q. 4. What do the wisemen learn at the time of death? Ans. They learn that death is reality.

Q. 7. What is meant by dying of the light? Ans. It means death.

Q. 8. What does the poet pray to his father?

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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Summary & Analysis

Do not go gentle into that good night: about the poem.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night  is Dylan Thomas’ most famous poem. The poem was written in 1947 when the poet was in Florence with his family. It was first published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951. Then in 1952, it was published in Thomas’ volume  In Country Sleep, And Other Poems .

‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ is said to have been written for the poet’s sick, dying father . Dylan tried to give him some encouragement to hold on and not to lose hope. It is only at the last stanza of the poem that the poet addresses his father directly.

The main theme of the poem is that we should not surrender to death in a meek and gentle way. Rather, we should try to resist it with all our efforts. We should try to live as long as we can with the power of will. In the first stanza of the poem Dylan asks his father not to give in to death. In the next four stanzas the poet speaks about why and how all kinds of people (wise men, good men, wild men and grave men) try to defy death. And in the final stanza, he again asks his father to rage against the ‘dying of the light’ (death) like everybody else.

The title of the poem  ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ is just the first line and one of the two refrains (repeating lines) of the poem. This title itself makes the poet’s message clear. The imperative sentence simply instructs us not to go gently into the realm of death (‘that good night’).

But this poem has gone beyond its original purpose of inspiring the poet’s father. Now the readers and critics feel that this poem can apply not only to death or old age, but also to any kind of adversity we face. We should continue to struggle against the odds we face on our way of life. Moreover, as the poet himself was struggling to survive due to bad health, alcoholism and poverty, the poem applies to both Dylan Thomas and his father.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Form and language

In its form, the poem is a villanelle . (A villanelle is a pastoral or lyrical poem of nineteen lines, with only two rhymes throughout, and some lines repeated.) ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ and ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light’ are the two refrains in the poem. And the two rhymes are set with the words ‘night'(A) and ‘day'(B) in the first two lines. The first five tercets carry the rhyme scheme ABA while the last stanza has it ABAA.

The language is simple but highly suggestive and symbolic. The poet has used a number of metaphoric expressions for death and life.

Dylan Thomas: About the poet

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was a popular modern poet and author born at Swansea, Wales. He is regarded as the most famous Welsh poet and one of the most important English poets of the 20th century. Dylan started writing poetry when he was a teenager. He is also known for his radio broadcasts at the BBC. Dylan gained immense popularity for his love of wordplay and for how he wrote about Wales. Philip Larkin once wrote about him: “no one can ‘stick words into us like pins’… like he (Thomas) can”.

However, the poet struggled a lot with poverty and an unhappy marriage, fell prey to alcoholism and died a premature death at the age of 39. Read more about him at Wikipedia .

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: line by line analysis

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.

The poem opens with the poet’s appeal to his father not to take death in a gentle manner. Rather, he suggests that even at this old age, people should strongly react and fight (burn and rave) against death as if they were still young. In line 3, his appeal is even stronger with the use of the word ‘rage’ twice. In short, we should not accept death meekly but raise a war against it, put up a furious resistance to it.

Here, ‘that good night’, ‘close of day’ and ‘dying of the light’ — all mean ‘death’. ‘Night’ is a metaphor for death while ‘day’ and ‘light’ are metaphors for life.

The first stanza is very important, for it introduces the main theme of the poem as well as the two recurring refrains in the first and the third lines. Though all the three lines basically state the same thing, the tone gradually becomes harsher.

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.

Now the poet tries to support his message of resisting death by saying that every kind of people try to resist death. He starts his reasoning with the ‘wise men’ who are generally scholars and philosophers. They all know that death is inevitable (dark is right). But their wisdom has neither made death any easier nor prepared them to accept the reality of death easily (their words had forked no lightning). So, they do not approach death in a gentle way. They also fight against death.

Here the expression ‘words had forked no lightning’ is open to interpretations. Besides the above explanation, it may also mean that the wise men could not see their words (speeches, literary or creative works etc.) make an impact in changing the world in such a short time. So they want to live longer to see their words come true.

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.

Now the poet shifts to the ‘good men’. The good men are those who have done many things for the humankind and believe that they can change the world into a better living place. But in reality they often see that their dreams and hopes are dusted (frail deeds). So they, when nearing death (the last wave by), shout out (crying) that their failed deeds might have been successful (might have danced), had they got some more time to live and some more opportunities (in a green bay). So they also rage against the death and try to live longer.

Here Dylan compares the last generation of good men to the last ocean wave which is about to hit the shore, i.e., about to die. ‘Green ocean’ is symbolic of the youth, the height of life. Those men feel that their works would have been successful if they were in their youth by now. So they wish to live some more time to see their hard work pay off. That is why they fight death.

Here, one should note that the three lines form a single sentence with the ‘good men’ as its subject and ‘rage’ as the finite verb. My point is that one should not take the last line of the tercet as an imperative sentence, but a part of the statement where the poet tries to support his idea.

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 that good night.

Another kind of men who don’t accept death meekly are the ‘wild men’. Those people have spent their lives by wildly enjoying and celebrating (caught and sang) the mortal beauty of this life (the sun in flight). Sun represents the beautiful aspects of life that they caught in their imagination. They finally learn that they have wasted their precious time (grieved it on its way), but it gets too late by then. That is why they want to stay here for some more time by putting up a fight against death.

‘The sun in flight’ means the moving sun that continuously goes from the east to the west. The wild men remain busy in celebrating the sunrise, but fail to notice that they are gradually nearing the sunset, i.e., end of their life. It is as if the wild men grieved the sun by wasting their time.

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.

The last group of men that Thomas presents are the ‘grave men’. The word ‘grave’ is here ambiguous. It possibly mean serious people with great insight. Again it may refer to the sick, dying people. The poet says that even when they near death and lose their eyesight, they remain strong in their mind. They realize that they have the passion within to pursue happiness. Hence, they also rage against death.

‘Blind eyes could blaze like meteors’ is a fine instance of simile. Here, the poet hints at how people’s passion and power of will can keep them strong at heart even when they become physically weak.

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.

Finally the poet addresses his father who is in a sad and dying situation (on the sad height). Dylan begs his father to cry passionately (fierce tears) in order to express and lighten his sadness. That will be both a curse and a blessing for the poet. Probably Thomas means to say that seeing his father cry would be heartbreaking (curse) for him, but it would also bring some good feelings (bless) that his father is fighting against the odds of death rather than submitting to it.

Finally, the two recurring lines end the poem giving the message again not to accept death in a gentle way. Rather, we have to fight furiously and resist it. Thus the poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ closes with the same message it started with.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Poetry — Analysis Of ‘If’ And ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’

Analysis of 'If' and 'Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night'

• Categories: Literary Devices Poetry

About this sample

Words: 881 |

Published: Dec 16, 2021

Words: 881 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited

• Thomas, D. (1952). Do not go gentle into that good night. In D. Thomas, The Poems of Dylan Thomas (p. 18). New Directions Publishing.
• Kipling, R. (1910). If-. In R. Kipling, Rewards and Fairies (p. 63). Doubleday, Page & Company.
• Johnson, D. (1992). Poetic Language and Tone in Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night". Poetry Criticism, 20(2), 45-52.
• Smith, J. (2005). The Art of Persuasion: Analyzing the Rhetoric in Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night". Journal of Literature Studies, 30(4), 78-92.
• Brown, A. (2010). A Study of Motivational Tone in Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night". English Literature Review, 15(3), 102-118.
• Lewis, S. (1998). The Message of Empowerment in Rudyard Kipling's "If-". Journal of Inspirational Poetry, 25(1), 67-81.
• Anderson, M. (2003). Parental Voice in Rudyard Kipling's "If-". Journal of Family Dynamics , 18(2), 45-57.
• Roberts, L. (2008). Iambic Pentameter in Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night". Poetry Studies, 35(1), 23-39.
• Thompson, R. (2012). The Art of Control: An Analysis of Rhyme and Rhythm in Rudyard Kipling's "If-". Journal of Poetry Analysis, 40(4), 112-127.
• Green, E. (2016). The Complex Sentence Structure in Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night". Journal of Literary Analysis , 52(3), 76-91.

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Poetry Out Loud

• 25 Lines or Fewer

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 that 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.

Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” from The Poems of Dylan Thomas . Copyright 1939, 1946 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Source: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1957)

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Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

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 that 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. Copyright Credit: Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” from The Poems of Dylan Thomas . Copyright 1939, 1946 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. Source: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1957)

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night quiz.

• 1 Where was Dylan Thomas born? Edinburgh, Scotland Cardiff, Wales Swansea, Wales London, England
• 2 In what year was “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” written? 1956 1947 1891 1908
• 3 The illness and impending death of which of Thomas' relatives likely inspired the poem? His father His sister His grandmother His uncle
• 4 What is the form of the poem? Limerick Haiku Villanelle Sonnet
• 5 What is the poem’s meter? Trochaic Iambic heptameter Dimeter Iambic pentameter
• 6 Which phrase is an example of alliteration? “the last wave by” "wise men at their end” “blinding sight/Blind eyes could blaze like meteors” “crying how bright/Their frail deeds might have danced”
• 7 What is one of the poem’s refrains? “Do not go gentle into that good night” “And you, my father, there on the sad height” “Because their words had forked no lightning they” “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight”
• 8 Which type of men do NOT appear in the poem? Brave men Wild men Grave men Good men
• 9 How is death ultimately characterized in the poem? Wrong Happy Light Right
• 10 How are the deeds of “good men” described? Frail Wrong Right Strong
• 11 What do “wild men” “learn, too late”? How to be calmer How short life is How sad death is How to defy death
• 12 Who is the speaker addressing? His son His father His girlfriend His friend
• 13 What does the speaker compare the eyes of “grave men” to? Meteors The sun The moon Lightning
• 14 What was a common source of inspiration for Thomas? Jealousy His dog Nature His family
• 15 What is NOT used as a metaphor in the poem? Thunder Light Dark Lightning
• 16 What does the speaker ask his father to do? Show emotion in the face of death Die peacefully Retire Give the speaker’s marriage his blessing
• 17 Why is the poem referred to as “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”? It's the last line It's what Thomas called it It's the refrain It's the first line
• 18 What word would fit the poem’s rhyme scheme? Blue Gray Green Black
• 19 What verb is used to describe what “old age” should do? Rave Cry Bless Smile
• 20 How does the speaker characterize old age? Defiant Loving Peaceful Boring
• 21 Which literary device does NOT appear? Allusion Simile Alliteration Hyperbole
• 22 Which is a theme of the poem? Death Guilt War Lust
• 23 Which natural image does NOT appear in the poem? Waves Tornados Meteors Lightning
• 24 "Rage, rage against the…” Dying of the bright Dying of the light Dying of the might Dying of the night
• 25 What do “wise men” know? That love is strange That life is beautiful That stealing is wrong That death is right

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Subject, symbols, lines

I don't know if the number of lines represent something. The first three lines of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” establish the poem's themes and its form but the poem develops from there.

The poem was first published in 1951.

In the opening, "Do not go gentle into that good night," Thomas uses an euphemistic metonymy for death. "That good night", associated with death, describes death as "good" to overcome the negative connotation one ususlly connects to the idea of...

Study Guide for Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night study guide contains a biography of Dylan Thomas, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
• Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Summary
• Character List