Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Hayden Myrick
Jernigan
AP Literature
21 March, 2011
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”
From the second stanza to the fifth stanza in this poem, Dylan Thomas impersonally describes the inevitability of death and mans tendency to run from it. “Wise men at their end know dark is right” but they “do not go gentle into that good night.” Classified as a “good night”, death carries no morbid or negative connotations within the poem, yet the subjects cannot help but run from it. This highlights human’s disposition to fear unknown and mysterious subjects. Deep down, individuals know that they must endure death’s unknown journey. There exists a reality (acknowledged or not) that comes with death that is more human that living. Life’s exists so that humans may die and embark on their true journey in death.
The first and last stanzas in the poem develop a deeper, more personal level of communication. At the beginning, the author seems to implore the reader to refrain from entering into death. He mirrors the same attitude that all the characters of his poem exhibit; therefore, completing the underlying theme of humans tendency to resist death. In the final stanza, the author begs for his father to continue to fight for life. Although he knows that man’s destiny is death, he cannot bear to watch his father give into death. To see him seemingly “lose” the fight to death, the author cannot bring himself to witness.