Do Not Go Gentle

A famous saying by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that “we [as men] shall overcome”. What King makes clears is that the human race will always push forward and will overcome harsh struggles. In Dylan Thomas’s poem Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, many of the lines focus about death and the aspects of losing someone. To add, Thomas’s “overcoming” human struggle is symbolized by not submitting to death, but rather resisting it. Thomas wants humans to be in “rage against the dying of the light [death]” (3, Thomas).Thomas goes about many ways in which he tries to tell his audience that they should not just easily give up. Thomas uses important literary devices such as repetition, diction, word choice, and symbolism. These devices help to
not only advance the poem, but also allow the reader to obtain many obscure meanings. Thomas first starts off by describing how men (humans) should not give up their freedoms even when death is upon them. Thomas does this by using repetition of the phrase “rage against the dying of the light.” (3, Thomas). This repeated phrase is also supposed to make evident that death should not be taken swiftly. Furthermore, death to Thomas is something that every man, either wise, wild, grave and good must fight. Also the use of the repetition of even the words “light”, and “night” suggest that the main message from this poem is that death will always be there, but it is man's duty to not succumb to it. In other word, people will always have or experience death in society, but it is going to be their choice of how they will fight and combat it. Lastly, as much as death is unforsaken, it is something to Thomas that constantly reminds everyone why they live, and why they should always perceiver. While Thomas uses certain words more than others, the way he says them give conviction to what his overall message is.
Thomas has a “father” who is “... on the sad height” and is about to experience death (16, Thomas). As being a son who is going to lose his father, Thomas wants his father to keep fighting and perceiving through death. Thomas uses a powerful voice when he is trying to convince others on his points. Thomas applies the voice of a worried son to this poem to grab his audience's attention. Furthermore, Thomas makes certain that his father does not “go gentle into that good night” (18, Thomas). He wants to tell others that people should never let death become between them and their loved ones. Overall, death is the main reason for why others should keep fighting. To end, Thomas wants others to grasp his ideas about making sure that our loved ones should always fight with death, and not give
up. The last major literary devices that Thomas put in his poem is imagery and symbolism.
One of the most important distinctions that Thomas makes is the difference between light and dark imagery. This imagery is followed by words such as ‘light’, ‘night’ to help convey the ideas of death and life. Also, Thomas is very crafty and uses to establish a man’s timeline to death as one whole day. In other words, he uses the cycle of one day to help relate to his reader of when someone dies. What makes this poem such a great poem, is that the poem has many meaning. While this poem does signal death, it does not necessarily have to be associated with death. In context, Thomas uses words like ‘rage’ to symbolize the action of going against something in which people believe is wrong. If the brave people of the civil rights movements, or the pilgrims of plymouth just went “gentle into that good night”, the world would have been much different (1, Thomas). The major point that poet is trying to make is that humans will always go through struggles, but it is their duty to overcome and to “rage against the dying of the light”, and the things that they know are
wrong.
Dylan Thomas creates a poem that has many quite a few messages, and has many poetic devices that are used to support and reinforce his claims. Thomas’s word diction and style allow him to not only strengthen his message, but also allows for other to be nodding in approval. Thomas main claim is that people should not easily succumb to death, even if it means that there is suffering and pain. Furthermore, the major point of this poetic villanelle is to force people to really think about any life obstacles. Despite whether or not Thomas is talking about death, he wants people to really think about how to overcome life obstacles, even if it means that there is pain and suffering. Thomas makes evident that people should not be so willing to give up on what they think is morally right, and that they should keep persevering no matter what is thrown their way. Lastly,