Dylan Thomas 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'

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Dylan Thomas’s villanelle “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” was written for his ill father. Thomas showed a very optimistic view on the aspects of growing old and dying despite the fact his father is dying. He shows this through the decisions to the write the poem in the nineteen-line villanelle, using consistent repetition and excellent word choices. “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a Villanelle with five three-line stanzas and one four line stanza at the end. Although it might sound easy to write a poem with the following rules, but without the right words the poem could be a simple and dull. The rhyme scheme consists of A-B-A set up but the last stanza has a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-A. There is a total of nineteen lines and six stanzas. The last line of each stanza has a repetition form of A-B-A-B-A-A. A is “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” and B is “Do not go gentle into that good night”. Four different men: wise, good, wild, and grave are all present at the beginning of every stanza, not including the first and last. “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is repeated a total of four times throughout the poem, as well as…show more content…
When Thomas writes “Do not go gentle into that good night,” the night refers to the older years of your life and how it might get foggier and blacken. People usually busy themselves with different activities throughout the day to keep their mind preoccupied, but while unwinding as the night goes on they get reflect and become dispirited. Another line that is utilized continually is, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” When Thomas chose this to be one of the two lines to be repeated four times, he made a great decision because it demonstrates that you should not feel hopeless and you should fight the old age and the feeling of wanting to give
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