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Do not go gentle into that good night : Key info

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Do not go gentle into that good night is a notable literary work by Dylan Thomas. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of Do not go gentle into that good night.

Key info

    • Poet: Dylan Thomas
    • Written: 1947
    • Published: 1951, in the collection In Country Sleep and Other Poems
    • Form: Villanelle (a poem of 19 lines with repeated lines and a fixed rhyme pattern)
    • Rhyme Scheme: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA
    • Tone: Emotional, serious, and passionate
    • Genre: Lyric poem / Elegy
    • Subject: The poem is about the poet’s dying father and the struggle against death.
    • Addressee: The poet’s father – Thomas is speaking directly to him.
    • Theme: Resistance to death, the value of life, human courage, and the desire to live fully until the end.
    • Message: The poet urges his father – and all people — not to give up easily to death, but to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
  • Famous Refrains:
    • “Do not go gentle into that good night”
    • “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

  • Meaning of Title: “That good night” is a metaphor for death; the poet tells us not to accept death quietly but to fight it with strength and passion.