Do Not Go Gentle

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Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Courtney Johnson

“Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light.” What Dylan is trying to say is that someone shouldn’t die lightly. He’s saying that you should rave in your last days and fight against death. Don’t sit and just wait for your body to die, but enjoy it and make the absolute most of it. Dylan’s view of death is different from a lot of poems. A lot talk about the sadness of death and talk about old age as if that automatically means that their life has come to an end. But in this poem death is something that isn’t necessarily feared, but it seems to be known, accepted, and possibly angry about. There’s a personal connection between the narrator and death. The narrator’s father is dying and they’re telling the father that he needs to fight this and stay for just a little while longer. There’s many emotions that are put into the words of this poem and you can feel them as you read.

In forms of imagery the author does a great job at creating a mental image of what his view of death really is. He describes it as a form of light that is dying. Going deeper in to this he gives off that your life source is as powerful as your light inside you. Meaning, if it’s going out then you’re slowly …show more content…
The ending lines in each stanza switches from “rage, rage against the dying of the light” and “do not go gentle into that good night.” These lines are the most important lines in the poem because they are the two lines that have the most impact through their words. He is saying not to give up and just die. He’s saying to keep fighting and keep pushing for that extra day or living. He’s saying to live your days to the fullest. To rage against the light would be that fight inside you to keep yourself alive. By not going gentle into the light would mean that you would be fighting against it kicking and
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