Do Not Go Gentle

Published in 1951, Dylan Thomas’s “Do not Go Gentle” is a fine example of a villanelle and clearly follows the controlled, rigid structure that the form demands. Beginning with five stanzas consisting of three lines each, the poem finishes with a lone stanza consisting of four lines. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAABAABAABAABAABAA and the poem is primarily written in iambic pentameter. The figurative language used in the poem is powerful and assertive, which serves the speaker well to make clear his message that one should fight intensely against the looming specter of death. In conjunction with the strong figurative language choices, the poem makes great use of diction and utilizes repetition to strengthen its message. Throughout the poem, the symbol of a setting sun frequently reappears, with the speaker making use of an extended metaphor relating the passage of a day to the passage of one’s life.

In the first line, the speaker implores the listener to not slip away softly into the night, with the next two lines stating that one in their old age should “burn and rave” at the end of the day and “rage” against the dying of the light (Thomas 2-3). By the end of the first stanza, it is clear to the listener that the speaker is using the light as a metaphor for life and the night as a metaphor for death. Further, the speaker is attempting to urgently persuade the listener that one that is nearing the end of their life should defy the inevitable when the end is coming.

In the second stanza, the speaker expands upon the ideas presented in the first stanza,

continuing the metaphor of night as death and refers to it as “dark” this time around (4). The speaker notes that intelligent men know that death is unavoidable at the end of their lives, but since their words have “forked no lighting,” or not made a strong impression on others, the men feel that they are not ready to die, so they will not leave this mortal plane peacefully (5-6).

During the third stanza,...