The poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas is addressed to his dying father, urging him not to accept death quietly but to continue living passionately until his last breath. Thomas uses the villanelle form and poetic devices like metaphor, simile and refrain to reinforce the theme of raging against death. He compares his father to wise men, good men and wild men who fought against their mortality with fervor. Even when facing death, Thomas wants his father to maintain his intensity for life and go down fighting rather than slipping gently into death's night.

2. Overview
• ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Night’ was
written by Dylan Thomas in 1945, when
his father D. J Thomas was seriously ill.
• The poem is a protest against the idea of
accepting death quietly.
• It discusses the various ways to approach
death in old age and advocates struggling
against death until the last breath.

3. Do Not Go Gentle into That Good
Night

4. • It is a strong invocation for us to live
boldly and to fight. It implores us to
not just "go gentle into that good
night," but to rage against it.
• Even at the end of life, when "grave
men" are near death, the poem
instructs us to burn with life.
• The poem's meaning is life affirming.

5. • (A1) refrain 1
Line 2 (b)
(A2) refrain 2
• Line 4 (a)
Line 5 (b)
(A1) refrain 1
• Line 7 (a)
Line 8 (b)
(A2) refrain 2
• Line 10 (a)
Line 11 (b)
(A1) refrain 1
• Line 13 (a)
Line 14 (b)
(A2) refrain 2
• Line 16 (a)
Line 17 (b)
(A1) refrain 1
(A2) refrain 2
• Here the letters “a” and “b” denote two rhyming sounds, while “A” indicates
refrain and the numerals 1 and 2 denote refrain 1 and refrain 2 respectively.

6. Function of Villanelle
• Villanelle is divided into
three segments. The first
segment is called the
introduction. The second is
called the development and
the third is called the
conclusion.
• Villanelle builds up the
intensity and tone of a
poem.
• The poet’s use of this form
is ironic because villanelles
were first made to be
lighthearted

8. Symbolism:
The poem, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into
That Good Night’ has the
following symbolisms-
* ‘Night’ in the poem symbolizes
death
* ‘Burn and rave’ are frequently
associated with the passion of
youth; here the poet wants the
elderly to live passionately.
* ‘Close of day’ symbolizes
approaching death
* ‘blaze like meteors’ symbolize
living life with full intensity.
* ‘Sad height’ symbolizes
closeness to death

9. Alliteration:
*Do not go gentle into
that good night
*Rage, rage …
*..blinding sight/ Blind
eyes could blaze like
meteors and be gay
*sang the sun

10. Simile:
• ‘Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay’
(Even though they are old and going blind, they still
have power over how they die)
Imagery:
• “because their words had forked no lightning they
do not gentle into that good night”
Personification:
“caught and sang the sun”
“old age should burn and rave”
“their frail deeds might have danced in the bay”

11. Metaphor
– good night is a metaphorical
expression of death.
The first 3 lines are
metaphorical as night, close of
day and dying of the light all
refer to death.
…and many more ^_~

12. Oxymoron:
• An oxymoron is a paradox in which two terms
of ordinary usage are contraries and
conjoined.
• “Curse, bless” is an example of oxymoron in
the poem. The poet is asking his father to
‘bless’ as well as ‘curse’ him.
• “blinding sight” --dying men who have gone
blind can still see” (at least in a metaphorical
sense—see using their wisdom rather than
their eyes)

13. Parallelism:
– The poem has the use of parallelism by describing the
actions of four different kind of men, ‘wise men’, ‘good
men’, ‘wild men’ and ‘grave men.’ The speaker wants
his father to have the qualities of these men.
– The poem uses parallelism as the actions of the
different types of men are listed. Each of these four
stanzas begins by listing the type of men in question,
then describing something amazing that that group
of men have done. The speaker ends each by
reminding the reader that these men won't let
themselves die without a struggle.

14. Contrasts:
The poet has used a number of
contrasts in the poem to highlight its
theme. They are as follows-
*gentle and rage
*night and day
*light and dark
*blind and sight
*curse and bless
PUN on “grave” –
very serious and
dying

15. REFRAIN
• Refrain 1: do not go gentle into that good night
Refrain 2: rage, rage against the dying of the light
•
*alternate repetition of lines emphasizing on the
main idea of the poem; the poet's message
reminding his father not to submit to death but to
fight IT every step of the way
* this also stresses the intensity and urgency of the
tone of the poem

16. Stanza 1
• The poet is addressing someone to not go gentle into the night.
‘Night’ symbolically represents death. ‘the dying of light’ and
‘end of day’ shows that death is nearing.
• The poet is using night as a metaphor for death. The span of a
day could represent a man’s lifetime, which make the sunset as
the moment of death. The poet seems to urge, implore those in
old age to fight with some passion and zeal like they had in their
youth. He invokes a sense of urgency with the repeated word,
‘rage, rage…’ to not give into death without a fight.
• It starts with an imperative or command creating a sense of
urgency
• ‘good night’ seems ironic
• Contrasts strength of living (burn, rage, rave) with weakness of
dying (dying of the light)
• The words ‘rave’ and ‘rage, rage’ bring into play a whirlwind of
emotions such as anger, power, destruction, madness and
frustration.

17. WISE MEN

18. Stanza 2
• The wise men (thinkers, philosophers, sages) know that death is
inevitable. Their desire is to impart their knowledge onto others
and they will continue to carry on with the same passion
regardless of how it affects people. That is, if they were able to
make a difference or not, they do not give up their enlightening
of others.
• They don’t give into setbacks but continue to make a difference
in the world. They may have not achieved what they set out to
do so they aren’t willing to just sit back and welcome death to
consume them without a fight. They don’t stop living but surge
forward with just as much passion as ever.
• ‘Dark’ is right means death being inevitable as it is a natural
process. (dark is another metaphor for death)
• ‘words had forked no lightning’ means they may have not really
made much of a mark on the world. The ‘lightning bolt’ may
refer to the intensity of passion that may not have yielded
intended results. Therefore, they hold on to life till the very end
to achieve their goals.

19. GOOD MEN

20. Stanza 3
• The second type of men he addresses is the ‘good’ men.
Good refers to moralists or men who live an upright life.
According to the poet, true goodness is composed of
fighting the inevitability of death with all of one’s might
and force. They will fight like the waves that rages and
breaks upon meeting the shores/ banks/ rocks.
• ‘Last wave’ can be interpreted as the generation of men
who are about to die in similar manner of ocean waves
that crash against each other.
Metaphors:
‘the last wave by’ ---final movement of their life
‘how bright their deeds might have danced in a green
bay’—they may have done great things if they had not
been ‘brought to shore’
• The good men ‘rage’ against their death

21. WILD MEN

22. Stanza 4
• Wild men—adventurous souls; rebels; who do not
obey the rules
• who remain carefree and tries to enjoy to the fullest
at the moment often try forget the impending death.
• Personification –“caught and sang the sun”—did
impossible things—beautiful actions
• “in flight”—something which cannot remain; brief (the
beauty)
• “learn too late” that they cannot capture and hold onto
the beauty—transience
• “grieved”—wept as if something died—is this
metaphorical or hyperbole?

23. GRAV
E
MEN

24. Stanza 5
• Even grave men, who are serious and grim, when
reaching their death may see with blinding sight
yet the little light they have or the flicker of the
light can blaze like a meteor…with intensity and
force.
• Simile: ‘Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and
be gay’
Even though they are old and going blind, they still
have power over how they die
• Pun –’grave’ men
• Oxymoron: ‘blinding sight”

25. Stanza 6
• Dylan finally addresses the person whom he wrote the poem for—his dying
father! He turns to address his father: “and you, my father..” The poem is
PERSONAL rather than abstract as the object of the poem is introduced.
**Apostrophe !!
• Dylan’s frustration seeps through the lines as his imploring gains momentum
with the refrains in the previous lines culminating in a couplet at the end of the
quatrain—reminding his father not to submit to death but fight it every step of
the way.
• “sad height”—he is dying/ death is upon him/ closeness of death
• Oxymoron: “curse, bless”
He wants his father to be like those men by not giving up whatever the odds
and continue to live life to the fullest even if death comes knocking on his
door—to not bow down to death but fight it.
• If one has to go—go down raging against the force of death.
• His message is to rage on with fiery intensity to fight and live life as long as it
stays and enjoy whatever life has to offer. To continue to live with the same
zeal/ passion till his last breath as if there is no tomorrow

26. THEMES

27. Theme of Old Age
• "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good
Night" is the speaker's exploration
of what it means to age closer and
closer to an inevitable death,
especially if the aging person
becomes frail and starts to lose his
or her faculties.
• In order to restore power and
dignity, the speaker urges the dying
to fight their fate and cling
tenaciously onto life.

28. Theme of Family
• Spoken by a son to his dying father,
the poem suggests the intensity
and power of familial bonds.
• It also works through a reversal of
roles – the son, not the father, is
giving advice, and the father, not
the son, is weak and in need of
encouragement and help.

29. Theme of Mortality and Death
• "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good
Night" laments the necessity and
inevitability of death, encouraging
the aged to rebel against their fate.
• The poem suggests that (to use an
old cliché) we should leave this
world the way we came in – kicking
and screaming, holding on to life
for all we're worth.

30. Theme of Wisdom and Knowledge
• The theme of wisdom and knowledge is
shown through the poem beginning
with death, it is what everyone knows
will happen at one point in their
lifetimes.
• Though when death is approaching, one
needs to have the knowledge in oneself
to know what has made their lives
meaningful and to know never to fear
death.

31. Theme of Transience (briefness/ impermanence/
momentariness/ evanescence)
• Transience in the poem causes the speaker a
lot of anxiety. It worries him that there are
things people might have been able to do in
the world if only they had been here longer.
• It bothers him that people live such a short
time.
• The transience of all things—count the images
and ideas that have a brief existence: ‘meteors’,
‘lightning’, ‘waves’, ‘the sun in flight’
• The ONLY thing that lasts is our heroism—how
we lived and how we fought death.

32. Theme of morality and transcendentalism.
• This line laments inevitability and necessity of death,
encouraging the old people to rise up against their
death and fate.
• The poet’s voice is arguing that the old people
should not consent to die immediately.
• He has linked being alive with passion and deep
emotions.
• Thomas’s “good men” and “wise men” resist dying
gently, because they could not achieve what they
might have achieved in their lives.
• Through the examples of different types of men, the
poet affirms the importance of being alive. He
believes that they should resist dying, if they have
not truly lived their lives.

33. .

34. what lesson to take away from
this lesson itself?

35. Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

36. Day 3: Questions
• How does the title itself affect the message of the
poem?
• What is the tone of the poem? How do you
know? Give evidence from the poem to support
your view.
• What ideas have been expressed about ‘grave
men’ in stanza 5?
• Comment on the poet’s choice of words, use of
the villanelle form and poetic devices to reinforce
his overall message of the poem.

37. • What is the speaker’s attitude toward death?
• Why do you think Thomas referred to his father’s
tears as both a ‘curse’ and a blessing?
• Why did Thomas use the poetic form of
‘parallelism’? Why did he compare his father to
four other types of men?
• One of the themes of the poem is that no one
should calmly accept death. What does the poet
mean? How has he set the tone of the poem to
build up this theme?