Dying Case

Dylan Thomas wrote "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" in a way that has the speaker trying to convince someone to fight death. Thomas's first and third lines are in some ways very opposite of each other. He gives four different types of men as examples; these types of men are all different but doing the same; fighting death and showing they want to live on. Thomas wrote this poem while his own father was dying a slow death (Heaney 10) and it is believed this poem is directed at him (Heaney 10) as a way to incite him to fight death and to continue to live.

The first and third lines become recurring refrains; they state Thomas's basic theme about resisting death throughout the poem. The first line is very simple and not forceful. The third line is more insistent of fighting death. They also use opposite detail words from each other. "Light" to "night," "gentle" to "rage," and "good" to "dying." "Good night" is used as a paradox for death. "Gentle" seems to be a description of the person the poem is directed at. The repeat of the word "rage" is to urge the person dying to fight the death that is coming. (Hochman 1)

Thomas wrote this poem while his own father was dying a slow death; he saw his father as a mentor. It gives several examples of different types of men and how they thought when they died - the wise men, the good men, the wild men and the grave men. The wise men know they haven't done anything great in their life. The good men realize they could have been better. The wild men realize they must die and wishes he was better. The grave men wish that they could have been both serious and happy. All of them realize this and fight to live and accomplish those things that they want out of life now.

You do not realize it till the last stanza, you think he is talking about anyone in general, but this poem is directly about Thomas's own father. In the first line he uses "sad height" as a symbolism for his father's death bed. "Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray" is in turn meaning that Thomas wants his father to show him that he is fighting as hard as he physically can. Dylan composed this poem most likely while his father was still alive and seriously ill but it did not publish until after his father had passed (Heaney 10). Such an incongruity that Dylan wanted his father to fight being sick and not die but he, Dylan, died too.

Dylan Thomas wrote this poem as a moving plea to his dying father. The whole poem is a battle he wants his father to fight to live on. He gives examples of different men that would fight to live to make more of life. He wished so hard for his father to fight death and continue on. Dylan himself died a year later, a cruel twist in fate.

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