.
The second stanza, however, gets more complicated:.
"Though wise men at their end know dark is right, .
Because their words had forked no lightning they .
Do not go gentle into that good night." (4-6).
It is here that the poet comes to terms with the reality of death, saying that the smart old men know that it's right to die, but because their lives have not been lived to the fullest, they fight death. "Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way," (10-11). Thomas goes on from there to state that these men learned to late what life was all about, and on their deathbed, even though they fought to live so that they could began living the life they should have had, it was too late.
The imagery and word usage displayed in the poem is magnificent. "Blind eyes could gaze like meteors and be gay" (14) is a beautiful metaphor, and the Rhyme scheme gives off a smooth flow and an enjoyable sound. The Rhyme scheme is as follows: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA, however this particular poem is 19 lines and therefore is not considered a sonnet and does not necessarily contain an English or an Italian rhyme scheme. The meter of the poem, however, is constructed in Iambic pentameter form, which makes it easy to read because of the bouncy like slow flow of each individual line.
The polarities found in the poem consist of "dark is right" (4), and "who see with blinding sight" (13). Dark is usually associated with wrong doings or evilness such as sin, not with anything good or right. As for blinding sight, if someone is blind, it means that they can not see, however in this poem, it is describing the act of seeing as being superb to those who are being blinded. Dylan Thomas" view of death is not a very good or happy one, he associates death with darkness, and calls the world to appear as light, where as it's usually the other way around. The things of the world are usually viewed as dark and evil, while the ways of heaven (the place where believers in Christ will go when they die), is associated with light and purity.