The Inevitable

The Inevitable

“Do not go gentle into that good night” is a poem by Dylan Thomas. Throughout this short poem he speaks of how once death is near to “Rage, rage against the dying of light.”(352) What he is saying is that once death is near don’t let it takeover, because in the end death doesn’t chooses you, you choose death. This poem is filled with symbolism for death. Throughout the poem Dylan Thomas uses symbolism very well to depict his point about not only death but life.

The title itself is filled with symbolic value, “Do not go gentle into that good night.”(352) what he is saying is that death is inevitable but don’t let it prevail, fight doing all that one can to deny death. The symbolism in the first line of the poem and the last line are same for a reason. The last lines reads “Rage, rage against the dying of light.”(352) Those two lines are underlying points that he wants the reader to remember, he’s just not just saying don’t let death take over once near, he’s also saying don’t let any problem in life take over, and also fight what one believes in. He’s giving advice useful to everybody. Thomas realizes the importance of fighting for what one believes in because before one “goes into that good night” (353) that person will regret not fighting. That is the exact reason why Thomas repeats those to lines so often, to demonstrate the importance of the point he’s trying to prove.

The second stanza he talks about how wise men know the dark is right at the end but “because their words had forked no lighting” they don’t go gentle into the good night. The symbolism he’s attempting to get across is that a wise man knows death is just part of life, but the wise man he talks about doesn’t live life to the fullest. These supposed “wise men” know only about death but they fail to realize there is more to life that just life and death. They need to start looking into the light, and live a life that is meant to be lived, to the fullest.

The first and last lines of the poem are not the only symbolic lines of the poem. In the third stanza of the poem Thomas says “Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay.” What he is saying in this stanza is now they complain about how bright the light but before they die they’ll want that light back. The point Thomas is trying to prove is that people don’t realize when they have something good going for them. These “good men” would complain