Analysis Of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

In the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” the poet, Dylan Thomas, uses metaphors and repetition as an outlet to urge all men to resist and rage against death by living brightly until the inevitable end of their life. In describing human life, rather than explicitly using the words ‘life’ and ‘death’, Thomas uses light and dark metaphorically to describe these different stages of life. Thomas instructs that at the end of one’s life, their “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” as well as to “rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas 2-3). At the close of day, as one can assume, the sun will start to set and the sky will start to dim, or light will start to die. Thomas uses this daily process as a metaphor by describing the process of life’s approaching demise as ‘dying light,’ as well as describing life as ‘light’ and ‘brightness.’ Using these metaphors, Thomas

Thomas also uses a very distinct structure of repetition in this poem. At the beginning of each three line stanza, Thomas describes different types of men, such as “wise men” (Thomas 4) “good men” (Thomas 7) “wild men” (Thomas 10) and “grave men” (Thomas 13). However no matter what type of man, Thomas always repeats at the last line of each stanza, instructing these men to “not go gentle into that good night” and to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas 18-19). By repeating this instruction after describing a whole spectrum of men, Thomas is indicating that all men must resist death. No matter how wise they are to know that death is inevitable or how near, or no matter how wild they are in what they have done in their life, all men must rage against the release of death. Being the only repeated lines as well as the two closing lines of the poem, the emphasis given on these lines is also key in deeply instilling the message of resisting death unto the