Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

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“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, by Dylan Thomas is a poem that addresses the plea from the son to a dying father. The poem is being addressed to the speaker’s father by the narrator and this is can be seen from the last stanza when narrator says that “And you, my father, there on the sad height, with / curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray” (lines 16-17). In this context the “you” refers to the the speakers father, an individual who is surely about to die. In this poem the speaker is seriously concerned about his father who is about to die, he really wants his father to evidently fight against death and to continue being alive as long has he can. The main aim of the narrator is to encourage his father that all men usually do face the same end, but they do fight for their lives so that they can live long, however difficult it maybe. The thesis of the poem is that the “old age should burn and rave at a close of a day” and the speaker has mention this in (line 2). Thomas has been able to categorized men into four different groups so that he can be in the position to persuade his father that however the consequences he has faced in life, there is always genuine reason behind why to live. Thomas uses this category to address and give him no any excuses regardless of what he has done in life.

The poem address that death is a natural process and a rite of passage that do exists and as wise as they are, they should accept it, However, Thomas tells us that regardless of its existence they have to fight against death simply because they are still having some feelings that they have no yet gained enough of the reputation and their words have bared no lighting. They want to hold on life and to make sure that they leave a mark, Thomas stated the poem by giving reference such as wisemen, and then went to good men, and then wildmen then lastly gravamen. The main reason why he used this kind of progression was to address and to see his father’s main character lie.

In the poem the word goodnight is referred to us the symbol for death, the narrator has spent most of the poem giving details to address reasons why all different men do “Rage, rage against the dying of light” despite the reason being that all these men know that death is a must, no one is ready and willing to go. There is still more they want to have done in the world and to rectify the past mistake they did so that they “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”. The speaker has been in the position to explain how men refuse to face death just in order to show some indication to his father that he should also be able to resist and fight against death and to live as long as possible, and he indicates that this is the right thing to be done by all individuals who wants to remain alive and to live long, hence in the last stanza he tells his father to do so.

The speaker affirms that the old men at their ends of lives should be in place to resist and fight against death so strongly, that they are only entitled to live under the sun as a kicking and screaming individuals, not having fears that they will have to die at one point. Towards the end of the poem we have confirmed that the speaker has got some personal stake on the issue because his own father is dying.

Reference

Thomas, D. (1952). Do not go gentle into that good night. Botteghe Oscure.