Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

We are all going to die. It is only a matter of how and when. Many people wish for a peaceful death in which it is as seamless as falling asleep. However, Dylan Thomas goes against this particular grain in “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”. With the use of a defiant tone, repetition of critical lines, and provocative metaphors, Thomas implores individuals that they should not at any point give up despite death being imminent.

Dylan Thomas sets the tone of his iconic poem with the title, which is also one of the recurring lines in the poem. When the speaker says “Do not go gentle into that good night”(1,6,12,18), he is saying that you should not peacefully accept death. In most cases, many people would consider a peaceful death as good of a death as there can be, but Thomas urges the reader to not accept it. While it may seem like an odd stance, one must consider that towards the end of the poem we learn the speaker is speaking to his father. In context of the poem, this is someone struggling to accept that his father is dying therefore he is begging his father to also not accept it. Another way Dylan Thomas is able to not only reinforce the defiant tone, but also reinforce the central message, is his repetition of critical

words and lines.
In the poem there are a total of nineteen lines and eight of them are the product of decisive repetition. The lines “do not go gentle into that good night”(1,6,12,18) and “rage, rage against the dying of the light”(3,9, 15, 19) are both included in the first and last stanza while also being included at the end of the each stanza in between with the use of an AB pattern. These lines reiterate the central idea and apply it to each scenario in the stanzas.
In stanza two, Thomas expresses the idea that “wise men at their end know dark is right”(4) still continue to fight death despite knowing it is a losing battle. This is “because their words had forked no lighting”(5). This means that they have not been able to express defiance, or anything that “caused any great stir among mankind”, therefore they must “now express that defiance”(enotes).
In the third stanza, Thomas writes that men “crying how bright/their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”(9-10) should also fight death because they should not accept that they could have been better recognized for their accomplishments somewhere else. Instead of accepting that things could have been better for them, along with accepting death, Thomas says they should fight back. If they do not accept death, then maybe they can go to the “green bay”(10) where their accomplishments would be better received.
Dylan Thomas continues this theme of introducing characters that also should not accept death throughout the poem.

We finally learn why in the last stanza as it begins with “and you, my father, there on the sad height”(16). Here we learn that the speaker's father is dying and he is asking him to defy death by naming other people who also should defy death. Unfortunately, there is no moral resolution. Thomas does not include if the father tried his best to fight death or simply allowed it to come. This is likely due to the fact that regardless of if the father did either, he likely ended up dying regardless. The poem ends with the central demands “do not go gentle into that goodnight/ rage, rage against the dying of the

light”(18-19).
In addition to the defiant tone and use of repetition, there are critical metaphors that set the overall message in stone. First and foremost, life is often compared to light. This light that illuminates humans is what is referred to as dying rather than actual life itself. The use of light as life gives way to the idea that these lives are meaningful. Of course, if life is light then death, by contrast, is darkness. This idea is included when the speaker says “wise men at their end know dark is right”(4). In direct language, he would be saying that smart men know that death is simply how things end. Rather than that, Thomas tries to provoke emotion by creating the image, with the use of metaphors, of light suddenly going out. It is a metaphorical and visual representation of death. With the use of this, there is added emotion each time the speaker repeats “rage, rage against the dying of the light”(3,9, 15, 19).
In conclusion, Dylan Thomas used a defiant tone, critical repetition, and emotion provoking metaphors to urge readers to try and defy death.