Grades 9 and 10 - English Language - High School - Poetry - Do not go gentle into that good night — Flashcards

Dylan Thomas was a twentieth-century Welsh poet and author. His poetry is known for its lyric (musical) voice. This poem, 'Do not go gentle into that good night', was written when the poet's father was dying. Sadly, Thomas died shortly after, at the young age of thirty-nine. Read the poem (out loud is best) and then see how well you can analyze it.

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.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
 

- Dylan Thomas