An Evitable End: Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle . . ." Anonymous College

Death is often a sensitive subject; after all, most individuals relate death to the loss of someone who was especially important or beloved. In Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night,” a strong message is delivered to those who are near death. Thomas demands them to continue to fight their ailments and not accept that death is upon them. Using symbolism as well as strong language, the message to fight death is conveyed to all different types of dying men, including Thomas’s father, throughout the poem.

Thomas does not waste any time trying to deliver his message and begins the poem by evoking powerful emotions and creating a sense of urgency. Words such as “burn,” “rave,” and “rage” in the first stanza induce feelings of anger and desperation that set the tone of the poem from the very beginning. Thomas does not want his audience to take his message lightly. In the second and third lines, death is referred to as the “close of day” and the “dying of the light”. These phrases are synonymous with the sunset set and relate life to a single day. While a lifetime may be long, a single day is much too short of a length of time. Thomas feels as if life is too short and believes all people should fight for as long as we...