Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

The Meaning Behind the Poem

Dylan Thomas's famous poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," is a powerful and moving meditation on the inevitability of death. The poem's speaker implores his father to fight against the dying of the light, to rage against the fading of his life.

The poem is written in the form of a villanelle, a type of poem with a repetitive refrain. The refrain, "Do not go gentle into that good night," is repeated at the end of each stanza, emphasizing the speaker's plea for his father to resist death.

The poem's imagery is vivid and evocative, painting a picture of the speaker's father as an old man, his life ebbing away. The speaker describes his father as "wise men," "grave men," and "wild men," suggesting that he has lived a full and rich life.

Despite his father's age and impending death, the speaker refuses to accept that his life is over. He urges his father to "rage against the dying of the light," to fight against the darkness that is approaching.

The poem's final stanza is a powerful and moving plea for his father to live on, to continue to fight against death.

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