Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Analysis

In the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas, the poet speaks to his old dying father, lamenting his father’s loss of strength and health due to old age. The poem conveys less grief, but more hope and power. Through urgent languages and strong feelings, the poet encourages his father to fight against the lack of purpose and achievement that comes with old age.   Throughout the poem, the poet repeats the refrains “Do not go gentle into the good night; rage, rage against the dying of the light”. “Good night” and “the dying of the light” are both metaphors for the decaying and failing old age. The poet urges his father, and the readers, to strive and work hard even when they are old. The word “old age” is explicitly stated in the first stanza: “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” (l. 2). It is directly revealed that the poet is speaking to his father in the last stanza of this poem: “And you, my father, there on the sad height” (l. 16). What’s interesting is that the subject who is supposedly receiving the message from this poem is revealed extremely late in the poem. The poet only refines the poem to a more personal level in the last stanza, when he mentions both “my father” and “I” for the first time. Leaving the readers to ponder the subject of the poem when reading the first 5 stanzas, thus leaving room for readers to interpret the poem. It is also important to notice that the central message of the poem contradicts with common values of how children are supposed give their weak elderly parents a calm and relaxing life.