Summary A son beseeches his elderly father to fight, rather than accept, death: "Do not go gentle into that good night." He gives examples of how "wise men," "good men," "wild men," and "grave men" "rage against the dying of the light," and begs his father to do the same.
             Keywords Aging, Death and Dying, Grief, Illness and the Family, Rebellion
             Interpretation of "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"
             "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is an urgent plea from Thomas to his dying father and to all dying men not to give in to death. The first and last stanzas summarize the meaning of the poem, the first urging old men to fight death and the last pushing the father to do the same. The middle four stanzas are examples of various types of men, their trials of life and the whisper of death upon them.
             Wise men know that death must come because throughout their lives they spoke only the truth. Good men wish that their efforts to help others had been of greater consequence in the end, but say that with more luck they could have accomplished more of their goals. Wild men hasten their own death with their dangerous living, and grieve in their dying days. Grave men remain serious and blind as they die, though they could be happy and bright.
             In the last stanza, Dylan Thomas creates a picture of a motionless, dying father. Thomas cries out in anguish for his father to curse him or bless him, anything to show a sign of life. The poem closes with,
             "Do not go gentle into that good night.
             Rage, rage against the dying of the night."
             Perhaps the best Villanelle ever written, Thomas initially addressed this poem to his father who was dying at the time. The usual Christian attitude of acquiescence and acceptance towards death and a peaceful rest afterwards are shunted aside in favor of an ungentle rage.
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