Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, By Dylan Thomas

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night -- Dylan Thomas When someone knows that danger is near, they do everything in their power to avoid it. The theme in this poem is present throughout the poem which is the struggle to survive. Many examples and aspects are used to help portray this theme such as symbolism, imagery, and other literary devices.

Firstly, symbolism helps to portray the struggle to survive in this poem. When Thomas says “Do not go gentle into that good night,” this means to not give up so easily and let death overcome you. This is shown in the quote as “Do not go gentle” is where he says to not fade away slowly, but to persevere, and the second part of the quotation “into that good night” symbolizes death as the night is dark,

An example of imagery shown in the poem is “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 first part of the quotation “Though wise men at their end know dark is right” shows that although people know that death is nearing, “because their words had forked no lightning,” which means that they have not done anything remarkable in the world, that they were most likely capable of doing, “they Do not go gentle into that good night,” which said before, means they do not let death come so easily. This clearly relates to the theme the struggle to survive as they do not want to die in order for them to do something before they die. Another example of imagery shown in the poem is the quotation “Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”. In this quotation, the “good men” are people who are nearing death, as they wished they would have lived longer crying out what they could have done which is “crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”. Imagery is shown here as Thomas portrays the waves of an ocean. The wave crashing into rocks or the shore signify death, and the ocean itself is life. Green is the color of nature, and nature is living and peaceful, so the green bay can represent life.