DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT - TEXTUAL ANALYSIS 

Looking at the title the reader is stricken on the visual level because of its unusual length. Indeed, you usually expect a title to be short and summary.

Also, considering the title, the poem might be set at night or in the evening, the beginning of the night, because the use of the action verb “to go” and the preposition “into” suggests a progression of the action.

The use of the negative form of the verb is a figure of speech, a litotes, with the purpose to draw the reader’s attention on the inhibition.

Simply giving a glance at the lay out, which is how the poem looks on the page, you can easily realise that there are five tercets and one quatrain.

Even the lay out strikes the reader on a visual level, thus it is a sufficient reason for the reader to proceed with the reading.

The rhyme scheme is ABA, and ABAA in the last stanza. The function of the alternating rhyme is to add a linker between the stanzas and to lead the reader through the reading of the poem.

It’s also a sound device that sticks into the reader’s mind.

In the first tercet there’s an assonant sound “a” between “age”, “rave”, “day” and “rage”, it’s a sound device that draws the reader’s attention.

Also, the repetition of the noun “rage” underlines the concept of rage and anger.

Furthermore the use of the verb “burn” creates an effect such as it were stoking the rage.

The poet uses an imperative verb, “Do not go”, to encourage the addressee to “not go gentle into that good night”. It is as if he’s exalting the light of the day and is against the “dying of the light”, the dark of the night.

In the second tercet the consonance between “dark” and “forked” is a sound device which creates a harsh feeling and a sense of hardness.

The speaking voice tells the reader that even if “wise men” should know that “dark is right”, they should “not go gentle into that good night”.

In the third tercet the alliterate sound “r” creates again an harsh effect that reminds the reader of range.

In this stanza, the poet refers to different kinds of men, “good men”, and he connotes them as “frail”.

In the fourth tercet there’s a chiasmus construction in the first line: “who caught and sang the sun in flight”. Indeed, the two alliteration, “caught”-“flight” and “sang”-“sun” are placed like an X.

The speaker refers to another category of men, “wild men”, that have flown too close to the sun and have got burned.

He says that they also should “not go gentle into that good night”.

In the fifth tercet the consonance between “blinding”, “blind”, “blaze” is a sound device that draws the reader’s attention and stick into his or her mind.

The poet, addressing “grave men” who are “near death” and “who see with blinding sight”, creates a contrast with the fiery “rage”. Indeed also “blind eyes could blaze like meteors”.

In the quatrain the poet refers to his father.

The adjective “sad”, the verb “curse” and the noun “tears” connote the stanza with angst.

From the last stanza, you can evince that when the poet refers to “night” and “dying of the light” he is actually alluding to death. 

The alternation of the repetition of the lines “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and “Do not go gentle into that good night” creates a kind of refrain that conveys the principal meaning of the poem.

In conclusion, the ultimate purpose of the poem suggested between the lines is almost a prayer for the poet’s dying father.