Considering the title, the intelligent reader may be curious about why the probably subject of the poem shouldn’t go gentle in “that night”. To note is the use of the adjective that instead of the article the, even though the subject should know what night the poet is speaking about.

Looking at the layout, the reader can see that the poem is arranged into 6 stanzas, the first five are tercets, on the contrary the last one is a quatrain, so it sticks in the reader’s mind and the reader may expect the last stanza to have more important information than the previous ones.

In the first stanza, the second line is almost the thesis for this poem. The poet classifies men into four different categories to persuade his father to realize that there is a reason to live.

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.

Thomas moves forward and describes the next group as good men. They too reflect on their lives as the end approaches sawn in the seventh line. They self-proclaim their works as good, but as Thomas goes on into the next line, “their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”, he laments the idea of men knowing that their deeds will not be remembered regardless of how seemingly significant they were. Green bay refers to an eternal sea that marks men's places in history.

Wild men, however, have learned too late that they are mortal. They spent their lives in action and only realize as time has caught up with them that this is the end.

Grave men are the last group. In this line, his use of grave men almost has a double meaning, referring both to men who are saddened and those who are physically near death. They feel the strains of a long life, and they know that they are physically decaying. “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay” (14) is an expression that represents man’s struggle for survival. The speaker suggests that even in this frail state, his father could be happy living longer.

Finally, in the last stanza, the intent is presented. Thomas claims that all men fight for more time. He urges his father to do the same. It appears that his father has either peacefully surrendered himself or resigned himself to his fate.

He is trying to postpone the inevitable by pleading for a little more time, feeling that his father is giving up and that maybe if he can prove to him that no one should give up regardless of their disposition, then his father will be able to get off his deathbed.

The poet uses the words night and light as metaphors for death and life and alternates them to hammer his point home. The purpose of his use of division into categories remains, however, to emphasize the importance of living, presenting his father with an unmistakable argument: choose life.