Poetry Reading Response- “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”

Maddy Stutt 809 ELA Ms. Robbins

Poetry Reading Response- “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”

The poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas was originally written about the death of thomas’s father. The poem also seems to be more important and through his father’s death I think Thomas is sending a message to all people who ,ade the same mistake as his father. I think that the main theme of the song is the idea that no matter who you are your life must be something worth fighting for, and you cannot keep going in the face of wrong, you must stand up and fight for your life and what you believe in. many lines from the poem were supportive of the message. Also, Thomas seems to use repetition to help show the message of the poem.

First, Thomas includes repetition in two parts of the poem to help show the message that you have to fight for your life and live it to the fullest. He repeats two lines ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ and ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ Because he repeats them, they seem to stand out as the most important lines, which draws the reader to them. Both lines have similar themes. They start with a feeling of distress and anger through ‘Rage, rage’ and ‘Do not go gentle.’ Then, they both end with a sense of darkness. When the two parts are put together they mean that you have to fight and shouldn’t go along with bad things, or just go into the dark without a fight. The way Thomas repeats those two lines so they stand out helps draw the reader of the poem to them, and analyze them more deeply to help support the message. In addition Thomas mentions a figure, repeating it over and over at the beginning of stanzas 2, 3, and 4. In each one he says ‘men’ paired with an adjective. He uses ‘good men,’ ‘wild men,’ and ‘grave men.’ Like the two lines from before, repetition is used to stress importance on the people mentioned. Thomas did this because the rest of each stanza metaphorically all shows the men all making the mistake of not letting themselves shine and simply fading away. The adjectives good, wild, and grave all show very different feelings, which makes me think that by repeating the idea of using a group of mean Thomas is showing that anyone, and everyone, should be fighting for life.

In addition, the theme of the poem stood out through a few key lines. The fist one was the second line of the third stanza ‘their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay.’ This line metaphorically says that all of ones good accomplishments, or ‘frail deeds’ could have shone and been recognized by people, and ‘danced in a green bay.’ This idea of  ‘dancing in a green bay,’ shows light and happiness that could have happened, yet never did, because the people never put in any effort, or fought to make their lives great. Also, in the fourth stanza the line ‘blind eyes could have blazed like meteors’ stands out and helps show the theme of the poem. The idea of being blind helps to symbolize the people that aren’t living or fighting for life and is not trying to see life for the opportunity that it is. The second half of the line shows that the hollow, empty eyes, could be blazing with emotion. Basically, it means that the people who weren’t living there lives, could have had fulfilling lives and yet they did not put in any effort and are left ‘blind.’

In conclusion, the idea portrayed in the poem ‘Do Not go Gentle into that good Night’ by Dylan Thomas is that you have to make your life worth living for and live it to the fullest. The poem has made me think deeper about humanity because of the way it refers to people living their lives as if they have no end. I realized how often people say “Oh, maybe next time,” to new experiences, yet very few people think about the fact that there might not be a next time.  It makes me stop and think that humans need to take more advantage of everything that is given to them, and think about how ‘well’ everyone is living their own life. Maybe people should start doing and trying new things, because as Thomas says, time runs out, and sometimes, there is no ‘next time.’