Mason Fenner

Professor Blandford
UWRT 1100-028
29 September 2015
Writing to Explore 3
When family is challenged by death, someone of relation will drop everything in a
heartbeat just to be there for that person. The poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good
Night by Dylan Thomas portrays the death of his dying father and the motivation Dylan
provided him as he was fighting for his life. With the authors urgent and passionate
tone, the reader can realize that the poem isnt just about Dylan Thomas writing about his
fathers death, hes insisting that all men, wise, good, wild, or grave will always have to
deal with the threat of death sometime in their lives just because its a vicissitude of life.
No matter what though, having the ability to overcome adversity is the greatest attribute
one can have.
The poem, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night causes the reader to think
about death and how instantly it could happen to anyone no matter how old, young, or
healthy they are. The rhetor of this poem, Dylan Thomas, is dealing with his father
steadily dying knowing its a part of life, but he isnt ready to let go. He is urging his
father to not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light, to
do everything he can to keep breathing. The rhetorical situation in the poem is that Dylan
Thomas is struggling with the fact that hes going to lose his father, and the misery he
feels from this just adds on to problems hes dealing with in his own life. Dylan Thomas
cant escape the persistent strife bestowed upon him from life itself.

The author reaches out to a vast majority of individuals who have read the poem.
Anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one can easily relate to the rhetor. He
includes not only relatives, but also wise men and good men. Ultimately the author is
saying that dying is apart of nature and everyone will experience death no matter what.
The authors message is that life will never seize to have heartache and pain, because
death will always come in some shape or form.
Poetry is a very popular form of expressing ones hardships theyve experienced
on their journey through life. The rhythm and the way the author uses words to express
certain ideas is what draws the readers attention. For years poetry has evolved to the
point where song lyrics can be seen as a form of poetry. Lyrics and poetry are similar by
the way they go along a specific beat or meter. For example, music goes along the pattern
of one and two and three and four and, then repeats itself while poetry either has a
certain number of syllables in a line or goes by a certain meter. With the many
components that are used to create a poem, it allows the reader to delve into the passage
and figure out the true meaning of the poem. Poetry/Song lyrics have altered our
understanding of certain literacy themes because the artists are influenced by the culture
of the time period, and by exemplifying that culture in their work, our understanding of
those certain themes can be altered.
Ultimately, choosing between poetry and prose totally depends on the person.
Both forms of writing require a tremendous amount of skill and creativeness. In any work
of art such as Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, readers can take the meaning of
the poem to heart and use it as motivation to persevere through a hard time in ones life .In

the end, thats Dylan Thomass ultimate goal, for humans to fight against the dark and to
not go gentle into that goodnight.