"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"

“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

Paradox and repetition

                The poem continually repeats “Do not go gentile into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Because of the repetition and the fact that one of the phrases is in the title, the moral of the poem is to fight for life and no to use death as an escape. The repetition of the phrases keeps the main point of the poem central and evident. This poem also contains paradoxes. “Dark is right” refers to the wise men in the poem. This conveys that wise men know that their death will come and that it is a part of the cycle of life. Because they are wise, they know how to live and fight for their life, and when death comes, they are willing to accept it. “Sad height” refers to the speaker’s father. The paradox could refer to the father on the edge of a tall building about to commit suicide. “Curse, bless, me now” in line 17 right after “sad height” could refer to the curse of the speaker’s father trying to end his life. “Bless, me know” could refer to the speaker wanting to be blessed with his father changing his mind about committing suicide and fighting for his life. The blessing would be still having a father.