Dylan Thomas" "Do not go gentle into that good night" depicts a classic struggle between living life and letting it go. In this poem, we read about a son who is struggling with his father's impending death. Thomas sends the reader a powerful message through his use of repetition and diction. The poem can be read in a couple of different ways. The first is through the words that are written. The second is the life cycle that the poem seems to represent. The combination of the two bring a sense of strength to the poem; a strength that encourages the father to live life to the fullest and fight death to the very end.
When reading this poem, the first thing that is noticed Thomas" the use of repetition. He starts the poem with "Do not go gentle into that good night" and ends the stanza with "Rage, rage against the dying of the light". Here we see a command to not only avoid death, but also fight it with every means possible. He then goes on to describe different types of people and how they try to fight death. "Wise men" have not lived their lives the way they wanted; perhaps they have not accomplished their goals or made their mark on society. These men know that they will eventually die, but they fight death to the very end. "Good men" have lived their lives the right way, influencing others and making their mark on society. They, too, fight against the dying of the light. "Wild men" lived their lives brazenly and seemed to shine as brightly as the sun. These men were busy chasing life and realized at the end that they spent much of their life in grief. These men also fight against the dying of the light. "Grave men" are near death and their lives are fading fast. They, too, fight against the dying of the light. At the end, he is telling his father to yell at him, pray for him, and cry out to him- whatever he needs to do to fight death. He wants his father to be the strong person that he once was.
