Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Analysis

Most children would be calm and loving to a dying parent, but the poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas angrily discusses the importance of life and the importance of passion in the face of death. The poem addresses Thomas’ dying father and urges him to fight death in order to die heroically. Thomas expresses his harsh anger at the death of his father while maintaining a lyrical rhythm and intense metaphors for death. The poem expresses the rigidity of the brevity of life and necessity of passion in the face of death by its use of the villanelle structure, diction and sounds, and imagery. The brevity of life and the necessity of passion in the face of death is reflected in the strict format of the poem. Thomas meticulously follows the villanelle structure, giving the poem five tercets and a quatrain. Also, Thomas uses iambic penatemeter in the poem, which adds to the poem’s strict nature and gives it rhythm. The rigidity and mathematical precision of the structure and meter reflect the exactness of life, which Thomas counters by adding passion to the poem. Within the strict structure of the poem, …show more content…
The poem expresses the rigidity of the brevity of life and necessity of passion in the face of death by its use of the villanelle structure, diction and sounds, and imagery. Thomas also uses the allusion “sad height,” which refers to the biblical valley of death that is found in Psalm 23:4. This psalm reads, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” While this psalm is calm and peaceful, the poem is angry and urgent. One interpretation of this allusion is that it served as a source of comfort, but it makes the reader question, did Thomas reference this psalm to calm his father or