We should continue to struggle against the odds we face on our way of life. Now the readers and critics feel that this poem can apply not only to death or old age, but also to any kind of adversity we face. The imperative sentence simply instructs us not to go gently into the realm of death (‘that good night’).īut this poem has gone beyond its original purpose of inspiring the poet’s father.

This title itself makes the poet’s message clear. The title of the poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ is just the first line and one of the two refrains (repeating lines) of the poem. And in the final stanza, he again asks his father to rage against the ‘dying of the light’ (death) like everybody else. In the next four stanzas the poet speaks about why and how all kinds of people (wise men, good men, wild men and grave men) try to defy death. In the first stanza of the poem Dylan asks his father not to give in to death. We should try to live as long as we can with the power of will. Rather, we should try to resist it with all our efforts. The main theme of the poem is that we should not surrender to death in a meek and gentle way. It is only at the last stanza of the poem that the poet addresses his father directly.

Dylan tried to give him some encouragement to hold on and not to lose hope. ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ is said to have been written for the poet’s sick, dying father. Then in 1952, it was published in Thomas’ volume In Country Sleep, And Other Poems. It was first published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951. The poem was written in 1947 when the poet was in Florence with his family.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: About the poemĭo Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is Dylan Thomas’ most famous poem.

Don t go quietly into the night