Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

The poem consists of six stanzas that follow a clear and simple rhyme scheme, as is characteristic of the villanelle form: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA. The repetitive end rhymes lend the poem a chanting, song-like rhythm, imitating the sound of a prayer or a spell. The otherworldly quality of the rhythm of the poem enhances the extraordinary nature of the speaker’s plea to their audience; after all, death is an inevitability of life that no mortal being can defy.

The villanelle form, of which this poem is widely appreciated as an excellent example, has its origins in the Renaissance period in Italy and Spain as a dance-song. Historically, the villanelle contained simple themes of a pastoral or rustic nature, and Thomas’s use of the form in the English language demonstrates the power of the villanelle’s repetitive framework. The combined effect of the incantatory rhythm and form of the poem with the existential themes heightens the pathos of the poem, giving the reader the opportunity to share the speaker’s highly emotional experience. Left to confront the eventual and unavoidable loss of their father, the speaker expresses their grief through a series of pleas that ask for the impossible to happen. The impossibility of the speaker’s hopes reflects the desperation they feel as they face the reality of their loss.

The speaker of the poem employs a full-throated exhortation to encourage their father to resist giving in to death. Even before the speaker mentions specific groups of people—and before the last stanza reveals that the poem’s concrete addressee is the speaker’s father—the first stanza bristles with orders. Verbs in the imperative tense compel both the reader and the subject of the poem to “not go gentle” and “rage, rage” (Lines 1, 3). Between these directives, the speaker inserts a declaration framed as a commandment: “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” (Line 2). The word “should” in particular evokes the ten commandments of the Bible’s Old Testament as it suggests a moral element to the experience of death and one’s resistance to it.

The next four stanzas single out certain groups of people, specifying why they must refuse to accept the pull of death. For each group, the speaker asserts that their sense of resistance should come from a sense of disappointment in the notion of a fulfilled life. For example, though the individuals may realize that their death is inevitable and that “dark is right” (Light –) the “wise men” (Line 4) know that have yet to express something so powerful and substantive it splits lightning, so they do not yield to their demise. “Good men” (Line 7) lament that their good works were too “frail” (Line 8) to accomplish what they wished. These works are compared to waves that “might have danced in a green bay” (Line 8), but have instead crashed onto shore—this is why they must keep trying to do something meaningful until the very last moment. “Wild men” (Line 10) realize too late that their choice to live on the edge and in the moment comes with a price—the sudden knowledge that the sun they have chased must be “on its way” (Line 11). The men closest to death, “Grave men” (Line 13), finally realize that their “Blind eyes” (Line 14) don’t preclude them from last-minute flashes of brilliance and insight.

While the imagery and invocation of different types of men is striking, the poem’s final stanza explains the preceding four. The speaker concludes the poem with a personal appeal to his dying father, who is almost on the “sad height” of a funeral bier (Line 16). The speaker is desperate for his father to resume the actions of a living man, regardless of their effect: He wishes for his father to “curse” or “bless me now” (Line 17) because either way, it will mean that his father is once again full of energy and life. Because the addressee of this stanza is so specific, it is possible to read the vaguer stanzas as also addressing the speaker’s father. The speaker has been trying to find a way to motivate the dying man to “rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Line 19), appealing to a variety of aspects the man once inhabited.