DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Considering the title I expect the poem to be about a person who do something during the night.
“Do not” are the two most stressed words in the title.
The intelligent reader is curious about the reason why the poet uses an imperative form and why he or she associates the adjective good to the word night. Moreover, he or she is curious about the reason why the content shouldn’t go gentle into that good night.

The poem is arranged into six stanzas of three lines each, while the last stanza is made of four lines. So, in the poem there are 5 tercets and one quatrain. The last stanza breaks the regular pattern of the first five stanzas that are tercets.
Thus, the intelligent reader is curious to find out the reason and the effects of the regular pattern’s breaking.

In the first stanza, the speaking voice invites people not to take death easily (“go gentle into that good night”). The function of this fist stanza is to introduce the theme of the poem that is to fight against death.
“Good night” is a metaphor of death.
The use of the imperative form adds meaning because it expresses        the speaking voice’s angry against death. The speaking voice is ordering the reader to do not go gentle into that good night.
The use of the demonstrative adjective “that” remind at a specific night and underlines distance.

The speaking voice seems to get angry in front of getting old, in fact in the first stanza he or she introduces the concept to do not accept our lives would finish.
He or she is angry because he realizes that our lives should arrive to an end.

The speaking voice seems to mention death several times, referring to different types of men.

Thus, in the first stanza he gives a speech in general and in the following stanzas he communicates the message of fighting against death to various types of men.

In the second line of the first stanza is used the verb “should” that expresses a recommendation.

There is an anaphora, that is the repetition of the word “rage”. This word is repeated to emphasize the poet’s angry in front of death.

“the dying of light” is a metaphor to express death where “light” represent life.

In the second stanza the speaking voice explains that wise men, despite their wisdom, have not said anything enlightening, but he also invites them to fight death.

In the third tercet he addresses good men saying that they too have the right to fight against death even though their actions have been fragile.

In the fourth stanza the speaking voice also invites savage men, who have learned too late from life and now regret it, to fight in the face of death.

In the fifth stanza the speaking voice also invites men near death to fight against it.

Finally, he dedicates the last stanza to his father and again orders him to fight.
The regular pattern break is made because in the first five stanzas the speaking voice tells men in general, while in the last one he focuses attention on a person in  particular that is his father.

Therefore, the main message that this poem wants to convey is to order men to fight and not give up in front of death.