Summary Of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night By Dylan Thomas

There is an obvious, but seldomly discussed, relationship between life and death. One lives, and then one dies. Life is celebrated, revered, and often discussed; people are always imploring others to ‘seize the day’ and ‘make life count.’ Death is hardly mentioned. Unless one is in the process of dying due to illness, or a loved one has died, it is being all but ignored. The only group of people who often skirmish with the idea of death—talk about it, ponder about it, hypothesize about it—are writers. Poets specifically often explore human mortality, such as Dylan Thomas with his poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” Inspired in part by the terminal sickness of his own father, Thomas discusses several different views of life, death, and the tenuous relationship they share through the use of visual effects, form, and point of view.
Though such a stylistic choice emphasizes points made in these lines, it also limits any points the author is trying to get across in the poem at large. It is almost impossible to successfully expand and prove a point when the argument keeps returning to a single statement. The first statement Thomas returns to is “Do not go gentle into that good night,” which sets up death not as a cruel thief, robbing people of their glory days, but as an inevitability that cannot necessarily be blamed. However, he is also telling his audience not to succumb to death easily; he implores them to put up a struggle, to dig their heels into the dirt of the earth even as the Grim Reaper is