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Analysis Of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Decent Essays

Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” explores the inevitable mortality and what happens when death finally comes for a person. Throughout the villanelle structure, the speaker leads the reader through pleas of fighting against “that good night” and provides examples of all the men that have fought against it, and how those men lived their lives before facing their deaths. The repeated refrains throughout the poem help to reinforce the ideas of not going “gentle” and “raging against” the light dying, instituting the idea of protesting against death, for it is not something to succumb to. Not only does this poem explore how to face the inevitable, but Thomas also explores how a life should be lived. “Do Not Go Gentle into …show more content…

In this line the speaker metaphorically refers to death as a “good night,” which is somewhat ironic because most do not see death as a “good” thing. The repeating idea of death being a “good” thing” throughout the alternating refrain reinforces the speaker’s notion that the subject of the poem is accepting death, because the subject is “going gentle” into death, opposed to what the speaker pleads. Contrasting with the theme of inevitable mortality, the speaker states that “old age should burn and rave,” a cry for the subject to fight through death. The speaker then states in the third line of the first stanza, which is the second alternate repeating line of the tercets, to “rage against” death. Already, the poem reveals its autobiographical protest speech act. The speaker clearly does not want to accept the fact that the subject of the poem is not putting up a fight when death is nearing, which is why the pleas of fighting and raging until the end are repeated in each alternating …show more content…

The speaker ends the first stanza with the title of the poem, while the second stanza ends with “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” These alternating end tercets lines allow for the ABA rhyme scheme to become clear in stanzas one through five. Every first and third line of each stanzas rhyme with one another, while the second lines of each stanza have an end rhyme that rhymes with each second line. The rhyme scheme allows for the poem to be read with authority towards life and death. Every word and phrase was chosen carefully in order for the speaker to make a strong enough case to get his father to fight against his death, reminding the reader and his father, of the life that can be lived before the light begins to

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