TITLE ANALYSIS:

Considering the title, the intelligent reader focuses on the imperative verbs “do” and “go”. Both are action verbs. Indeed, the reader is spured (spronato) to follow what the author is saying.

An other element of the title that catches the reader’s attention is the expression “not go gentle”, since the author expresses a concept by the deny (negazione) of its opposite in order to emphasize the concept. 

The use of the word “gentle” combined with “good night” almost recalls an oxymoric (Juxtaposition of two words of opposite meaning - litote) meaning. This point could be further analyzed only getting deeper (più profondo) in the context of the text and understanding all the metaphors.

Reading the title, it recalls to:

- a person who is in a city at night (even a dangerous one) and despite the fact that the evening is particularly quiet, he still has to face all the possible dangers he may encounter

- someone who is in a difficult moment and has to find within himself the strength to overcome it

- someone who has lost an important person and has to find a way to overcome the loss

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM:

The layout of the text follows a regular pattern: there are 5 tercets and a last quatrain.

The text is in iambic pentameter (pentametro giambico): 5 beats and 10 syllables per line.

Looking the layout, the reader notices that the last word of every tercet is “light” or “night” that, not only are rhymes, but also are opposites. Moreover, reading the text, the intelligent reader understands that the use of these words have also a sound level. Indeed, the last word of the first line of every tercet rhymes with the last word of the final line of every tercet.

The rhyme scheme is ABA for each tercet. Therefore, also all the second lines of the tercets rhyme together. 

This is not happening in the last stanza since it is a quatrain and the rhyme scheme here is ABAA. So, the last words of first, third and fourth line rhyme together, instead the second one still rhymes with all the second line of the tercets above. 

“Do not go gentle into that good night” presents some literary tools to underline the importance of this sentence. It is present an evident alliteration occurring in the sound of letters g, t and n (it can be also be considered as a consonance). Probably, this was used to highlight the importance of the sentence, which also represents the key point of the whole poem.

The speaker urges to tell this to his father (it can be understood as fighting death associating the night as a metaphor for death), repeating this phrase four times in the poem – in lines 1, 6, 12, and 18.

This is not the only line repeated, which can often dilute the overall effect but in this particular case repetition strengthens the poem and makes the reader understand how important is this concept for the author who is getting almost obsessed.

The word Rage is always repeated twice in the lines to underline also this message: human beings should resist death with all of their strength before the end.

The word rage can be connected with rave, uniting anger, power, madness, and frustration in a whirlwind of emotion.

As just said, in the text there are some metaphors. The most evident one is night which probably represents death, bad times, darkness. Night is opposed to light which in this case represents the life, good times, happiness.

Another metaphor is present in line 8, since the green bay recalls the hope. The good men here probably still have hope even if they are dying and approach the death knowing (or at least hoping) that some of the actions they did could be good for the world. Green bay can also be seen as a synonym for life —> verde —> natura —> vita.

In the text, there are also an enjambement: between line 5 and 6. Actually, this whole tercet is characterized by a lilt (cadenza) effect of the unstressed/stressed words, the use of enjambment, where a line continues on into the next without punctuation, allowing a paused follow on into the next line.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

This is all for emphasizing the key sentence “do not go gentle into that good night”.

Also the contraposition “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors” represents a oxymoron. This will highlight the concept of light (which is opposed to the night —> leitmotif of the whole poem).

MEANING OF THE POEM:

The poem focuses on avoiding the mere acceptance of death in a docile and passive way (without resistance).

As can be seen from the last verse, the author refers to his father (probably dying) and tries to encourage him to experience death in a different, more active way.

To do this he gives him as an example 4 different types of men.

Considering the second stanza, wise men are the first group that Thomas describes. The first line in the stanza suggests that the wise understand that death is a natural part of life, and they are savvy enough to know they should accept it. However, reasons that they nevertheless fight against death because they feel they have not gained nearly enough repute or notoriety in life.

Then there are the good men, who are few (probably because the last wave says), and have done significant actions in life but which will not be remembered.

Wild men have had many experiences but only in the vicinity of death they realized that they had wasted their days chasing what they could not take.

Grave men are the ones who are physically dying, but there is still a passion for living in their eyes.

All men, regardless of their experiences or situations, fight for longer. The author urges his father to do the same.