Blog Entry #8

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas tells a story of death and its hardship. The speaker uses many symbols in his story to describe death such as “dying of the light” which means the ending of death and “last wave” which can mean last breath of life. The author repeats various times in the poem for the reader to not go gentle into that good night which is also the title of the poem. This action symbolizes a person to make the most out of their life, not to let anyone just give up and have them make a difference in life.

                The beginning of the speaker’s poem tells the readers we should fight through death; one must not quit life so easily. In line 2 the speaker states “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” which tells the reader that older people should have a resentment to dyeing and should leave life fighting by burning and raving. The speaker then goes on to say “Though wise men at their end know dark is right…”(Stanza 2, line 4) which means that older people know death is inevitable. “Because their words had forked no lighting…” (Stanza 2, line 5) signifies that people who haven’t make much of an impact, or “lightning” in life should let go so easily and should try their best to make an impact of what’s left of their life.

                The speaker then uses the bay as a symbol of life in lines 7-9. The last wave represents death (or their last breath) and the people who are dying are now crying due to their weak impacts on helping life which is the “green bay”.

                In lines 10-12 “Good men” represents the fighters in life that strived to make a better tomorrow. They took life in and made the best of it yet just as the sun sets, life can go by like a “quick flight”. Quick flight can also represent how fast life passes by us. These good men learned that life can be taken away in a blink of an eye.

                The author’s thesis is constantly reoccurring throughout the whole poem, at the end of each stanza he repeats that one must feel anger and rage knowing that one is dying.  He states rage two times at the end of each stanza emphasizing the importance of fighting and anger knowing that one is to die soon.

                In lines 16-19 we realize why the speaker is so emotional about the fight through death, it turns out that the speakers own father is dying. The speaker’s father is crying due to him stating “fierce tears” which is both a blessing and a curse due to the hope there is that his father can fight through his death.  The speaker again repeats his focus of the poem to his father “Do not go gentle into that good night” which means do not five into death so comfortably.

                The speaker generally is telling people to make the best of life and enjoy it the best you can because at the end of the day death is inevitable. One must fight through death if they have lived through their capacity. The speaker uses imagery to describe life such as “light” and death such as
“night”. Overall it was a very emotional poem, in my opinion due to the fact that it was also involving his own personal experience with his father’s death that he is writing about.