Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was born in Swansea, Wales. There, he attended a school where his father taught English. Although he was a mediocre student, he became interested in writing and served on the staff of a school publication. At 17, he accepted a job on a local newspaper and in 1934 moved to London, where he published his first collection of poems. In 1951, he wrote “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, ” one of his most popular poems. He addressed it to his octogenarian father, whose eyesight and general health were failing. The poem urges his father to fight against death--to "burn and rave at close of day"--rather than surrendering meekly to it. The poet himself certainly burned with zest for life. Unfortunately, he indulged in it recklessly, drinking heavily, and died a year after the poem was published, in 1952.  

Point of View 

Stanzas 1 and 6, which the poet addressed directly to his father, are in second-person point of view (you understood). The other stanzas are in third-person point of view. 
 
Type of Work, Stucture, and Rhyme Scheme 

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a villanelle, a form of poetry popularized mainly in France in the 16th Century. It usually expressed pastoral, idyllic sentiments in imitation of the Italian villanella, a type of song for singers and dancers that centered on rural, peasant themes. When French writers such as Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560) and Philipe Desportes (1546-1606) began writing villanelles, these poems did not have a fixed format. However, when Jean Passerat (1534-1602) wrote a villanelle whose format caught the fancy of critics, that format became the standard for all future villanelles. The format is as follows:  

Number of Stanzas: six   
Lines in Each Stanza: three in each of the first five stanzas, four in the last. A three-line stanza is called a tercet; a four-line stanza, a quatrain.   
Refrains: two lines, the first and third of the first stanza, must be repeated in the other stanzas. Here is the pattern: Line 1 of the first stanza is repeated as Line 3 of the second stanza, as Line 3 of the fourth stanza, and as Line 3 of the sixth stanza. Line 3 of the first stanza is repeated as Line 3 of the third stanza, Line 3 of the fifth stanza, and Line 4 of the sixth stanza.    
End Rhyme: aba in the first five stanzas; abaa in the last stanza. Following are the rhyming words in Thomas’s poem: 

Except for the second one of Stanza 5, each line in the poem has ten syllables (five feet). The first syllable in a line is unstressed, the second is stressed, the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on. Thus, the poem is in iambic pentameter. (If you need a detailed explanation of iambic pentameter and other metric formats, click here.)  
The following example demonstrates the metric scheme of the first two lines. The unstressed syllables are in blue; the stressed are in red capitals. Over each pair of syllables is a number representing the foot. Also, a black vertical line separates the feet. 

......1.............2..........3............4................5  
Do NOT | go GEN | tle IN | to THAT  | good NIGHT...........(Iambic Tetrameter) 
......1........./.......2....................3.................4..............5  
Old AGE | should BURN | and RAVE | at CLOSE | of DAY.....................(Iambic Trimeter)  

Theme 

Dylan Thomas is saying in his own way what one of Shakespeare's characters says in Henry VI Part I : "Fight till the last gasp" (Act I, Scene II, Line 127). Even at the end of life, the poem advises, one should attempt to "burn" with life, to "rage against the dying of the light."  
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Figures of Speech 

Thomas uses a variety of figures of speech. Examples are the following: 

Alliteration: go, good (Stanza 1); though, their (Stanza 2); deeds, danced (Stanza 3) sang, sun (Stanza 4); learn, late (Stanza 4); see, sight (Stanza 5); blinding, blind, blaze (Stanza 5). Note: Go and gentle do not alliterate; they have different consonant sounds. 
Assonance: age, rave, day (Stanza 1); blaze, gay, rage (Stanza 5) 
Metaphor: good night compared to death (Stanza 1) 
Metaphor: Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight (Stanza 4). Implied comparison of achievement to catching the fire of the sun and to singing triumphantly 
Two Metaphors: words had forked no lightning (Stanza 2). (1) Words are compared to the cause of forked lightning. (See Notes and Comments for Stanza 2 for an explanation of the scientific term forked lightning.) (2) Lightning is compared to attention, notice--that is, the words had received no attention. 
Metaphor/Personification/Metonymy: old age . . . burn . . . rave. (Old age represents and is compared to a person) 
Metaphor/Personification: frail deeds might have danced 
Oxymoron: good night (Stanza 1). Good death is oxymoronic if one does not view death as good. 
Oxymoron: blinding sight (Stanza 5) 
Oxymoron: fierce tears (Stanza 6) 
Simile: blind eyes could blaze like meteors (Stanza 5) 

• Dylan Thomas advises his readers to "rage against the dying of the light." If he were alive today, what would he say about assisted suicide and euthanasia? 
• Thomas, though a popular poet in his lifetime, managed money ineptly and thus was always in financial trouble. Moreover, he drank to excess. Research his life, then answer this question: Do you believe his drinking was a misguided attempt to "rage against the dying of the light"? Or was it a sign that he had despaired and decided to "go gentle," under the influence of alcohol, "to that good night"? (Thomas died in New York City after drinking to excess.)
• Have you ever "forked lightning"? (See Notes and Comments, above.) If so, write an essay about your experience. 
• In 1854, Henry David Thoreau wrote that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Was Dylan Thomas writing about the same men as Thoreau when he wrote in Stanzas 2 to 5 that certain men "do not go gentle" because they had "forked no lightning" or because they "grieved" the sun on its way?
• Write a villanelle that imitates the Thomas poem. Focus on a theme of your choice.